Where art begins: The painter at work

Its acquisition by a German museum consortium and the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung in 2023 was a sensation: Caspar David Friedrich's Karlsruhe Sketchbook was the last known privately owned sketchbook—of only six preserved by the artist. In these little books, the most famous painter of German Romanticism at the beginning of the 19th century laid down his impressions of nature and inspirations. The Karlsruhe Sketchbook is named after the city where it was kept after Friedrich's death. Dating from around 1804, it documents the perhaps most important years in the artist's creative development. The high-quality facsimile edition contains all 33 drawings preserved in the sketchbook that Friedrich created on his walks through Dresden and its surroundings—nature sketches that often formed the basis of his paintings and which he sometimes referred back to years later. A descriptive introduction contextualizes these references and illustrates the outstanding significance of this sketchbook, allowing Friedrich's visual cosmos to be relived in a very direct way.