In the manner of Caspar David Friedrich
German, 1774–1840
The Airfield in Fog, 2026
Oil on canvas
95 × 76 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.6.4
A chain-link fence, a small figure behind it, and beyond them an empty runway running straight into fog, where two lights show that something is coming or going. It is hard to tell which. The whole picture is blue and silver. Friedrich put a monk on a shore before a black sea, so small you have to search for him. Here at least the fence tells you where the edge is.
The brief
A small figure seen from behind at a chain-link fence looking across an empty runway into fog, a distant plane's lights barely visible, the whole scene pale blue and silver. 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.
