A drawing by Caspar David Friedrich that was previously thought to have been lost has sold at the top of Sotheby's 19th Century European Paintings auction, held on November 20 in London.
 The drawing had previously only been seen in an archival photograph |
The drawing is entitled View Towards Arkona, Rugen, and was executed circa 1803. A depiction of the island of Rugen on Germany's Baltic coast, it sold for £242,500 ($390,718).
"It is always tremendously exciting to handle works by Friedrich, the father of German Romantic painting, especially when one is dealing with a rediscovered work believed to have been lost," said Tessa Kostrzew, director of Sotheby's 19th century European paintings department.
"The isle of Rugen had a hold on his imagination, becoming the subject of one of his most famous paintings of all, of strollers overlooking the sea from the island's chalk cliffs."
Kostrzew refers to Chalk Cliffs on Rugen, an oil painting synonymous with Friedrich's name, which is housed at the Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten in Switzerland.
In July 2012, another Friedrich drawing of white chalk cliffs, this time on the island of Moen, sold for £229,250 ($359,693) at Christie's.
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Images: Sotheby's
