MATTHEW HAWKINS applauds a psychotherapist’s disection of William Blake
The perils of romantic nationalism
As Caspar David Friedrich’s 250th anniversary is celebrated in Berlin and New York, JENNY FARRELL urges viewers of the German Romantic painter to understand its true historical context, and beware its co-option by the far-right
NAZI INFLUENCER: (Above) Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, 1817-18; (R) The Sea of Ice (1823–1824)
[ Pics: Hamburger Kunsthalle/CC] 
New releases from Christina Alden and Alex Patterson, Odette Michell, Clementine Lovell
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America
Strip cartoons used to be the bread and butter of newspapers and they have been around for centuries. MICHAL BONCZA asks our own Paul Tanner about which bees are in his bonnet
GORDON PARSONS acknowledges the authority with which Sarah Kane’s theatrical justification for suicide has resonance today
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely homage to one of the IWW and CPUSA’s most effective orators
THE French Revolution sparked great hopes for the rise of the bourgeoisie, the abolition of feudal structures, and the establishment of a capitalist society.
Napoleon centralised power in his person, established an authoritarian regime, and crowned himself emperor in 1804. His wars in Europe served both territorial expansion and the spread of capitalist production relations. The events of 1806, including the defeats of the Prussian army at Jena and Auerstedt, the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, and the occupation of German territories by French troops, led to a strong anti-Napoleonic freedom movement in Germany.
Caspar David Friedrich was deeply affected by these events, and national themes shaped his art. His allegories of death and resurrection often transport a patriotic character. It was these national traits, which made sense in the context of the Napoleonic Wars, that were later instrumentalised in a different historical context for the purposes of German fascism.
More from this author
On the centenary of the birth of the anti-colonial thinker and activist Frantz Fanon, JENNY FARRELL assesses his enduring influence
JENNY FARRELL relishes a modern parable that challenges readers to confront the legacies of empire, and the possibilities of resistance
As Caspar David Friedrich’s 250th anniversary is celebrated in Berlin and New York, JENNY FARRELL urges viewers of the German Romantic painter to understand its true historical context, and beware his co-option by the far right
JENNY FARRELL traces the critical role that the CPUSA played in the education of Harlem’s greatest man of letters
