In the manner of Caspar David Friedrich
German, 1774–1840
Monastery in the Cloud, 2026
Oil on canvas
95 × 76 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.6.2
← Wanderer above the Sea of Notifications Morning at the Wind Farm →
A row of bare oaks stands in the fog like mourners, and behind them lies a long low building without a single window. A pale sun hangs over it. On a snowy rock in front, one figure looks across the frozen field. Friedrich's *Abbey in the Oakwood* is a ruin among bare oaks in winter, with monks carrying a coffin towards a church that is no longer there. The monks now work shifts.
The brief
A lone figure seen from behind at the edge of a frozen field facing a long low windowless data centre half dissolved in winter fog, a row of bare oaks, a pale sun. German Romantic oil painting, a single figure seen from behind standing before a vast luminous landscape, fog and mist dissolving the middle distance, cold blue-grey and violet dawn light, bare trees and rock rendered with meticulous fine brushwork, immense silence and symmetry, thin smooth glazes, an atmosphere of longing. Flat frontal reproduction of the painting, the canvas fills the frame edge to edge, even lighting, no frame, no wall, no text.
Written to the house rules. The painter's name does not appear.
Take it home
The painting on this room's wall, at its own proportions, nothing written on it.
