# Mountainous River Landscape \(Day Version\) [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [FRIEDRICH, Caspar David]() - Date: 1801-1850 - Technique: Mixed media on transparent paper, 77 x 127 cm ## Commentary In 1830 Friedrich was commissioned by Alexander, the heir to the Russian throne, to produce four transparent pictures. Executed on transparent paper and lit from behind in a dark room, the pictures would be viewed as an ensemble to the accompaniment of music. In 1835 the four transparent pictures were dispatched to St Petersburg together with the equipment needed to display them - unfortunately, they are now lost. In Kassel, however, a similar example survives, a Mountainous River Landscape painted on both sides of a single piece of transparent paper. When correctly lit, one side reveals itself to be a version of the composition seen in daylight, while the other side portrays the same scene at night. ## Related artworks - [Adolf Gottlieb Friedrich, Reading]() - [Boats in the Harbour at Evening]() - [Bohemian Landscape with Mount Milleschauer]() - [Chalk Cliffs at Rügen]() - [Chalk Cliffs on Rügen]() - [Cross in the Mountains]() - [Cross in the Mountains \(Tetschen Altar\)]() - [Cross in the Mountains \(Tetschen Altar\)]() - [Dolmen in the Snow]() - [Drifting Clouds]() - [Easter Morning]() - [Evening Landscape with Two Men]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()