''The Tree of Crows'' (also known as ''Raven Tree'') is an

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest ...

of 1822 by the German Romantic artist

Caspar David Friedrich Caspar David Friedrich (5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landsca ...

. Acquired by the

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

in 1975 (its first by the artist, followed by '' Seaside by Moonlight'' in 2000), it has been called one of Friedrich's "most compelling paintings." The painting depicts a twisted oak tree, bare but for a few dead leaves, seen against an evening sky. An inscription on the back of the canvas refers to the hill at the painting's center as a ''Hünengrab'', or

dolmen A dolmen () or portal tomb is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the early Neolithic (40003000 BCE) and were some ...

, a prehistoric burial ground.Börsch-Supan, 113Pomarède, 446 In the distance can be seen the ocean, and Cape Arkona's chalk cliffs, a favorite subject of Friedrich's.Börsch-Supan, 113 Two crows are perched on the oak, while a flock (also known, more correctly, as a "murder") descends toward it. In the darkened foreground are a hacked trunk and the upright stump of another oak. The oak is based on a drawing dated 3 May 1809, to which Friedrich added branches at the left and elongated others so as to stretch its forms across the picture plane; the tree in the painting has the overall shape of a rhombus, its web of contorted branches taking on a dramatic presence.Börsch-Supan, 113–114 Contrasted with the serene layers of chromatic clouds, the tree's forms have been likened to "many flailing arms."Börsch-Supan, 114 The foreground may be seen as representing death, with the distant sky offering consoling beauty and the promise of redemption after life.Pomarède, 446Börsch-Supan, 114 A single dominant oak was also the subject of two later vertical compositions painted by Friedrich. In those paintings the trees appear to stand in resignation, whereas that of ''The Tree of Crows'' seems animated by desperation.Börsch-Supan, 114

Notes

References

* Börsch-Supan, Helmut et al. ''Baltic Light: Early Open-Air Painting in Denmark and North Germany'', Yale University Press, 2000. * Börsch-Supan, Helmut. ''Caspar David Friedrich'', Prestel, 1990.
Pomarède, Vincent . ''The Louvre: All the Paintings'', Black Dog & Leventhal, 2011.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tree of Crows, The 1820s paintings Birds in art Landscape paintings Paintings by Caspar David Friedrich Paintings in the Louvre by Dutch, Flemish and German artists