In 2024, Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) celebrates his 250th birthday. On this occasion, Hessen Kassel Heritage presents current research results on one of Friedrich's outstanding works at the Neue Galerie from May 7, 2024. Since 1957, our collections have preserved something very special, indeed unique in Caspar David Friedrich's oeuvre: a large-format, double-sided painted. Moonlight-transparent, which unfolds its magic only in the dark when backlit. Only then does the mist clear on the front and a hilly landscape with a city in the background appears as if by magic.

Around 1780, the innovative and spectacular medium of the "transparency" conquered Europe starting from England. In small gatherings, people immersed themselves in the artificial moonlight and indulged in elegiac feelings. Public presentations of transparencies brought famous places or sensational events such as the eruption of Vesuvius vividly before the visitors in an unprecedented intensity.

How can the Kassel Moonlight be classified in the history of transparent painting? Where did Friedrich learn about the medium and how did he perfect the technique to previously unmatched perfection? How was his transparent illuminated with historical lighting devices? Was his lighting static or could a cinematic-like transition from light to dark or from morning to evening mood already be created?

We have also approached these and other questions in collaboration with a historian of physics and the study program Kunsttechnologie at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. As part of a student project, a technical study was conducted there to practically reconstruct Friedrich's approach. The results will be presented in a cabinet exhibition. The exploration of the Kassel Transparent was remarkably fruitful. Join us in marveling at the moonlight transparent of the German Romantic painter, which has been far too little noticed until now.