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| Caspar David Friedrich: Self-portrait with propped arm. 1802, sign pen, 26,7 x 21,5 cm, Hamburger Kunsthalle |
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was born on 5 May 1813 in Copenhagen.
What was Caspar David Friedrich in the painting, which provided Kierkegaard in the philosophy.
Contemporaries noted both men for their idiosyncrasies and melancholic disposition. Nonetheless, where these two perhaps differed from the surrounding culture’s work ethic was in their efforts to conceal this devoted isolation from the world around them. Everything was meant to seem free and spontaneous, to Friedrich’s contemporaries, no one was supposed to notice how much effort it cost him to create such calculated and meticulously executed paintings. For his part, Kierkegaard told his friend Emil Boesen that my life is a great suffering, unknown and inexplicable to other people. Everything looked like pride and vanity, but it wasn’t.
Contemporaries noted both men for their idiosyncrasies and melancholic disposition. Nonetheless, where these two perhaps differed from the surrounding culture’s work ethic was in their efforts to conceal this devoted isolation from the world around them. Everything was meant to seem free and spontaneous, to Friedrich’s contemporaries, no one was supposed to notice how much effort it cost him to create such calculated and meticulously executed paintings. For his part, Kierkegaard told his friend Emil Boesen that my life is a great suffering, unknown and inexplicable to other people. Everything looked like pride and vanity, but it wasn’t.
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| Sketch of Søren Kierkegaard. Based on a sketch by Niels Christian Kierkegaard, 1840, Royal Library of Denmark |
