"The Tree of the Crows" is a late Romantic oil painting by the German artist Caspar David Friedrich, created in 1822. It has been owned by the Louvre in Paris since 1975.

The central motif of the painting is a weathered oak. His gnarled, partly broken branches and many tangled branches fill a large part of the picture. The few withered leaves suggest a wintry climate. There are some black birds in the branches. On the dark, lower edge of the picture, in the foreground of the oak are tree stumps and several bare branches. The oak itself stands at the foot of a small, grassy hill, which, according to a note on the back of the canvas is a mound on Rügen. In the background is a blue-violet evening sky with bright, orange-yellow cloud tracks and a small crows swarm to recognize.

The painting is reminiscent of a cold, stormy winter evening. The oak and crows swarm are emotional and somber. They evoke a feeling of dramatic despair, longing and untamed timelessness.

Caspar David Friedrich is one of the most important artists of the Romantic era. His main motive was nature, which he used time and again as a symbolic tool to depict his emotional state of mind and religious beliefs. "The Tree of the Crows" was created two years after the robbery of his artist friend Gerhard von Kügelgen, which had hit Friedrich hard. In 1822, a painting entitled "Kügelgens Grab" was also created. The oak in the "tree of the crows" has in the past been associated with death and the background sky with Christian salvation.

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The Tree of Crows by Caspar David Friedrich. Available as an art print on canvas, photo paper, watercolor board, uncoated paper or Japanese paper.
landscape · romantic · jackdaws · bleak · desolate · dead · tree · winter · sunset · fallen branches · stump · crows · desolation · huhnengrab · birds · crow · fa00605 · larbre aux corbeaux · romanticism · romanticist · arbre · Louvre, Paris, France / Bridgeman Images