Artists may not have invented hiking but during the Romantic Era, nature played a large role in their art. A show at Berlin's Old National Gallery looks at how wanderlust inspired artists like Caspar David Friedrich.
Image: Musée Fabre de Montpellier Méditerranée/Frédéric Jaulmes
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Wanderlust is one of those German words with such a specific meaning, it's been adopted into English: a joy ("lust") or passion for hiking. The German term "wandern" specifically means "to hike," and not "to wander" off course.
That pleasure of hiking is captured in numerous paintings from the Romantic Era; 120 of these works are now on display at Berlin's Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) in an exhibition centering on the German love for wandering through nature.
On loan from museums across Europe and North America, there are works by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Auguste Renoir, Carl Spitzweg, Gustave Courbet, Paul Gauguin and Emil Nolde. The biggest highlight is undoubtedly Caspar David Friedrich's famous Romantic painting, "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog" (roughly 1817) from Hamburg's Kunsthalle.
Caspar David Friedrich's painting "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog"Image: SHK /Hamburger Kunsthalle/ bpk/ Elke Walford
Friedrich is well represented in the exhibition which seems to ask: Why did so many artists of the Romantic era love hiking in beautiful landscapes? Where did they hike? What kind of impression did these hikes leave on their work?
The answers may be found in the show, which opens May 10 and offers discounted admission prices for members of the German Alpine Hiking Club.
The Romantics were passionately in love with nature. What they sought out in the beautiful landscapes they painted was a mirror of their own inner self; solitude was seen as a key to one's own inner cosmos. The most popular destinations of German Romantic painters were the Harz mountains, the island of Rügen and the Elbe Sandstone mountains of the "Saxon Switzerland." These untrodden paths and watercourses inspired them to produce paintings, copper engravings and sketches.
A path through high grass in August Renoir's "Chemin montant dans les hautes herbes" (1876/77)Image: Musée d‘Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt
"We are considering the notion of wandering on two levels," curator Birgit Verwiebe said. "In one way, we're looking at the actual movement through nature, the courage to set off on an adventure and allow new experiences to come to you. But we are also looking at wandering as a metaphor for the search for life's meaning."
Wandering, the German word for hiking, gives people a new rhythm. It acts as a means of relaxation, of winding down, which allows for a new understanding of self and the world.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel's work "Rock Arch," ca. 1818Image: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie/Jörg P. Anders
Many artists recognize this wandering as symbolic for the journey that people undertake through life. That is something that can be seen reflected in the motifs: the paths, the wide-open spaces, the gorges, the summits, the river-crossings, the stop for a rest.
Gustave Courbet's (1819-1877) painting "Bonjour Monsieur Courbet" from 1854 is one example of this. He, along with his patron, are immortalized as proud wanderers. In Ferdinand Hodler's "Tired of Life" from 1887, the traveler has come to an end, as seen in the shape of an old man crouching exhausted on the ground.
This work by Danish artist Jens Ferdinand Willumsen (1912) depicts a woman who loves hikingImage: Statens Museum for Kunst, Kopenhagen
Hiking becomes en vogue in the 19th century
With its solitary male figure high atop a rocky peak, Caspar David Friedrich's oil painting "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog" is still regarded worldwide as a symbol of German Romanticism. In opposition to this is Jens Ferdinand Willumsen's "Mountaineer" (1912) on loan from the Copenhagen State Art Museum, which represents women's emancipation.
Neither the migration of peoples nor the traditional grand tour of young nobility, nor the pilgrimages, nor the artisan's journey nor even the movement of refugees are addressed in the show. Instead, the museum turns its gaze to the unguided hike through nature.
Around the year 1800, with the slogan "Back to nature!" French-speaking writer and philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and Goethe's Sturm und Drang poetry, hiking became fashionable. It remains that way today.
A good reason to set out on your own pilgrimage, to the Alte Nationalgalerie on Berlin's Museum Island, for the exhibition "Wanderlust - From Caspar David Friedrich to Auguste Renoir," which runs through mid-September.
Forests in Germany
50 years ago the Bavarian Forest was declared a national park. Germans love the diversity of their forests and enjoy hiking through woodland areas. We show you a selection of fascinating forests.
Image: picture alliance/G.Delpho/WILDLIFE
Bavarian Forest National Park
The treetop path near Neuschönau leads the visitors over 1.3 kilometers to undreamt-of heights and opens uniquely beautiful views over the landscape of the Bavarian Forest, especially from the 44 meter high tree tower. In 1970 the Bavarian Forest was declared a national park - the first in Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Weigel
Berchtesgaden National Park
It's the only German national park in the Alps. Because of its high mountain location, with a bit of luck, hikers here can spot such rare animals as the alpine ibex, golden eagle, alpine hare and alpine marmot.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Görlich
Black Forest National Park
Since January 2014, parts of the Northern Black Forest have been under special protection. The North Black Forest National Park in Baden-Württemberg is a showcase project championed by Winfried Kretschman, state premier and Green Party member.
Image: picture-alliance/Ronald Wittek
Jasmund National Park
It's Germany's smallest national park, but that doesn't diminish its beauty. Jasmund National Park, in the far north of the island of Rügen, is home to one of the world's few surviving primeval beech forests. In 2011, UNESCO declared it part of the World Heritage Site, "Ancient Beech Forests of Germany".
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Sauer
Müritz National Park
Woodlands, lakes and marshes shape the scenery in Müritz National Park in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. After repeated human intervention in this habitat, its flora and fauna are being a given a chance to recover. The cultivated pine forests are gradually being replaced with deciduous trees such as beech and birch.
Image: Scoopshot/Ulrich Kloes
The Elbe Riverscape
An alluvial forest is considered an important part of a riverscape. Regular flooding provides a unique habitat for flora and fauna, as it does here on the Elbe in the state of Brandenburg. The Elbe River Landscape has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1997.
Image: picture-alliance/ZB
Harz Mountains
This low mountain range is not just one of the largest forested areas in Germany. It's also one of the most popular. As early as 1824, the writer Heinrich Heine devoted a travelogue to it. In the middle of the Harz is the Brocken, whose summit is many a hiker's destination. In addition, many animal and plant species live in these mixed forests, among them this endangered Brocken anemone.
Image: picture-alliance/ZB
Hainich National Park
The largest contiguous deciduous mixed forest in Germany lies in the state of Thüringen, or Thuringia. Because of its native beech forests with up to 800 ancient trees, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 2011. It's home to many rare animal species, such as the European wildcat.
Image: DW/C. Hoffmann
Northern Upper Palatinate Forest
Here, too, some habitats, such as moist and marshy meadow valleys, woodlands and streams, are still almost in their original state. They lend the countryside a mystical quality. The ruins of Flossenbürg Castle are a landmark in the Northern Upper Palatinate Forest nature reserve.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Spessart
A range of low wooded mountains on the border between Hesse and Bavaria, the Spessart was once used as a hunting ground by aristocrats and archbishops. The 19th-century bands of brigands there are also legendary. Wilhelm Hauff immortalized them in his novella "The Inn in the Spessart" in 1827.
