Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog

Movement: Romanticism A lone man stands on a rocky peak with his back to us, staring out over a sea of fog and mountains. Because we never see his face, we step into his place and share his awe, a device painters call a figure from behind. Nature as something vast and overwhelming, and one person's inner feeling in front of it, are the heart of Romanticism, which is why this 1818 painting by Caspar David Friedrich has become the movement's best-known image. It belongs to the Hamburger Kunsthalle in Germany. What came next: Realists turned away from dreamy peaks and painted ordinary life exactly as it looked.