New Moon or Solar Eclipse above the Riesengebirge Mountains

Caspar David Friedrich

National Gallery of Art

A grassy field leading back to hazy mountains under a sun shown in eclipse are painted with muted earthy tones in this horizontal watercolor. The field along the bottom third of the sheet is painted in soft peanut brown, and a line of trees on the far side are misty sage green. Ridges of the mountains are layered like sheets of torn paper under a parchment-white sky. The sun at the top center is mostly covered by a silvery disk.