April 2025

Dear Casa Carmen family,

Caspar David Friedrich’s painting Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog is one of the most iconic paintings of the Romantic period. It portrays a man from behind, standing on the edge of a high, rocky ridge, overlooking a blanket of low clouds punctuated by jagged peaks and a distant chain of mountains that fade into the horizon. The fog, the sky, and the mountains are mostly shades of light grays and blues. Their radiance shines in a stark contrast to the dark brown of the rocky ridges and the deep dark green of the man’s suit. He stands proud and gently rests on a walking stick that he holds in his right hand. Although he has mastered the mountain, the painting does not depict a conquest but an encounter. It embodies the romantic spirit.

Romanticism arose in an era of increased noise, agitation, and political upheaval—a time marked by rationalism and technological progress, by the Napoleonic wars, urban expansion and revolutions. In response, artists—painters, composers, poets—turned to nature as a source of inspiration and solace, as a place to encounter the divine. Wandering through nature was the quintessential task of the romantic artist.

In this painting, Friedrich’s “Wanderer,” after much effort, has come to the moment of encounter, to the epiphany. He looks out and becomes still. He stands above the chaos and confusion of the fog. His golden hair bends to the left, ruffled by the wind. His posture is triumphant but not dominating. Although he stands proud at the center of the frame, the focus of the painting is not his conquest but the immensity of the landscape and the luminosity of the horizon. The vastness of the “Sea of Fog” is transformative, illuminating, epiphanic.

As his back is turned to the viewers, the painting draws us to join the wanderer in his encounter. We realize that we too are wanderers, that we wander through this life with much effort and uncertainty, and that if we do this well, we may, perhaps, come one day to the edge of our own stony ridge and witness the formidable luminosity of a sea of fog. This is also the deeper meaning of wandering through nature: it is a practice that attunes us to the meaning of our wandering through life. The encounter with nature is a metaphorical encounter with the transcendent.

So this spring, dear friends, I hope we all take the time to wander, to walk through forests, meadows, and hills as life awakens from its winter slumber. And in that wandering, I hope we may, even if only briefly, stand above our sea of fog and look out to the horizon.

Salud,

Enrique