Monastery Ruins Eldena, c.1824/25 Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)

We create our paintings with museum quality and covering the highest academic standards. Once we get your order, it will be entirely hand-painted with oil on canvas. All the materials we use are the highest level, being totally artist graded painting materials and linen canvas.

We will add 1.6" (4 cm) additional blank canvas all over the painting for stretching.

High quality and detailing in every inch are time consuming. The reproduction of Caspar David Friedrich also needs time to dry in order to be completely ready for shipping, as this is crucial to not be damaged during transportation.
Based on the size, level of detail and complexity we need 8-9 weeks to complete the process.

In case the delivery date needs to be extended in time, or we are overloaded with requests, there will be an email sent to you sharing the new timelines of production and delivery.

TOPofART wants to remind you to keep patient, in order to get you the highest quality, being our mission to fulfill your expectations.

We not stretch and frame our oil paintings due to several reasons:
Painting reproduction is a high quality expensive product, which we cannot risk to damage by sending it being stretched.
Also, there are postal restrictions, regarding the size of the shipment.
Additionally, due to the dimensions of the stretched canvas, the shipment price may exceed the price of the product itself.

You can stretch and frame your painting in your local frame-shop.

Once the painting Monastery Ruins Eldena is ready and dry, it will be shipped to your delivery address. The canvas will be rolled-up in a secure postal tube.

We offer free shipping as well as paid express transportation services.

After adding your artwork to the shopping cart, you will be able to check the delivery price using the Estimate Shipping and Tax tool.

The paintings we create are only of museum quality. Our academy graduated artists will never allow a compromise in the quality and detail of the ordered painting. TOPofART do not work, and will never allow ourselves to work with low quality studios from the Far East. We are based in Europe, and quality is our highest priority.

Friedrich, the ultimate poet of ruins and melancholy. Here in "Monastery Ruins Eldena", he gives us a sprawling testament to the passage of time, both poetic and haunting. The scene feels like a ghost of an era long past, with nature slowly reclaiming the man-made. A crumbling Gothic structure rises like a skeleton, half-devoured by the trees and overgrown vegetation. You can almost hear the silence - a meditative stillness interrupted only by the whisper of the wind or the creak of old wood.

The palette? Oh, Friedrich does not shy away from earth tones, does he? The greens, browns, and muted yellows ground the scene in reality - it’s as if the very soil is reclaiming what was once taken from it. These natural hues bleed into each other, the foliage blending into the ancient stone with a softness that only heightens the sense of abandonment. But then there’s that light - that gentle, almost ethereal glow that filters through the ruins, hitting the small white house nestled among the shadows. It’s a delicate balance of light and dark, a technique Friedrich perfected. The house almost feels out of place, too modern and too alive, a bit of humanity peeking through the ruin’s solemnity.

Compositionally, Friedrich has created a perfect harmony. The ruins dominate, with their vertical thrusts drawing the eye upward, suggesting a longing for transcendence. But the overgrowth and the quiet house pull us back to earth, anchoring us in the tangible present. The painting captures a dialogue between the grandeur of human ambition and the inevitability of nature’s return. It’s moody, yes, but there's a kind of sublime beauty in the decay, a reminder that nothing - not even stone - can resist time's steady march.