The Stages of Life
Caspar David Friedrich, c. 1835
Five ships. Five ages. Children on the shore, an old man at the end. A whole life in one tide. You can pick your ship. You cannot pick the sea.
About this work
The Stages of Life (Die Lebensstufen) is an allegorical painting of 1835 by Caspar David Friedrich, completed five years before his death, and, like much of his work, a meditation on his own mortality and the transience of life. On a shore at dusk, an old man with his back to us walks toward a group of five on a hilltop above a Baltic harbour: a man in a top hat, a woman, and two children playing with a small Swedish flag. Out on the water are five ships at different distances from the shore, echoing the five figures and the stages of life; the farthest disappears toward the horizon, usually read as the old man's voyage out of this life. Unusually for Friedrich, the place is real: Utkiek, near his birthplace of Greifswald in northeastern Germany. The figures have been identified as Friedrich himself, his son Gustav Adolf, his daughters Agnes Adelheid and Emma, and his nephew Johann Heinrich. The painting belongs to the Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig.
Sources: Wikipedia · Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig
Print facts
- Native resolution
- 4,374 × 3,396 px
- Sharp at 150 ppi up to
- 29 × 22 in
- Sizes
- Small (20 × 16 in) · $100 · 212 ppi
Medium (24 × 19 in) · $150 · 179 ppi
Large (36 × 28 in) · $300 · 121 ppi - Price includes
- Frame and US shipping · 14–21 days · 30-day returns
FAQ
Where can I buy a framed print of The Stages of Life?
Here. The Stages of Life is available as a framed print in three sizes: Small (20 × 16 in) for $100, Medium (24 × 19 in) for $150 and Large (36 × 28 in) for $300. Prices include the frame and US shipping; delivery takes 14–21 days, with 30-day returns.
What size works best for The Stages of Life?
The file is 4,374 × 3,396 px. Medium (24 × 19 in) is the largest size that prints at 150 ppi or more (179 ppi), the sharpest choice for close viewing; Large (36 × 28 in) prints at 121 ppi, fine from a few feet away but softer up close.
Is it legal to print The Stages of Life?
Yes. The Stages of Life is in the public domain: its copyright, if it ever had one, expired long ago. In the United States a faithful photograph of a public-domain painting does not create a new copyright (Bridgeman v. Corel, 1999), so the image can be printed and sold freely.
