This series of articles looks at the German Romantic painters, their influences, paintings, and those that they influenced. This article provides a brief overview with links to each of the individual articles in this series.
Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714–1789), senior member of a family of French painters, a prolific landscape and marine artist who spent much of his career in Rome.
Caspar Wolf (1735–1783), a pioneering Swiss landscape artist who specialised in painting views of the Alps.
Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740-1812) initially specialised in dramatic landscapes and marines, before moving from France to London.
Henry Fuseli (1741–1825), another Swiss artist who settled in London, where he served as the Royal Academy’s Professor of Painting from 1799.
Influences on Caspar David Friedrich and Romantics
Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840)
Born near the Baltic coast of modern Germany when it was part of Swedish Pomerania, and lived for most of his adult life in the city of Dresden.
He studied at the Copenhagen Academy, then moved to Dresden in 1798, from where he travelled to sketch on the Baltic Coast, on Rügen, in the Harz Mountains, and Bohemia. He met Philipp Otto Runge, then in 1815 was elected to the Dresden Academy. Two years later, he met Carl Gustav Carus, and JC Dahl, both of whom become his pupils and lifelong friends. In 1824, he was appointed professor at the Dresden Academy. Leader of the German Romantic painters.
Caspar David Friedrich to 1820
Caspar David Friedrich 1820-30
Caspar David Friedrich 1830-40
Carl Gustav Carus (1789–1869)
Pupil of Caspar David Friedrich, a brilliant progeny and polymath. He was appointed professor of obstetrics in Dresden at the age of 25. Initially an amateur artist, he became friends with Friedrich, who taught him to paint in oils between 1814-17. Carus went on to research in botany, zoology and psychology. He was also a friend of and influence on Goethe.
Carl Gustav Carus 1816-25
Carl Gustav Carus 1826-50
Johan Christian Dahl (1788–1857)
Known as JC Dahl, from Bergen, Norway, he studied at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, where he established himself as a prolific and capable realist landscape painter, which brought him to Friedrich in Dresden in 1818. He visited Italy in 1820, then in 1823 he and his family moved in with Friedrich and his family, when they both taught in Dresden. His pupils included the Norwegian landscape artists Peder Balke and Thomas Fearnley.
JC Dahl 1818-1827
JC Dahl 1829-1856
Philipp Otto Runge (1777–1810)
A promising painter who was also born in Swedish Pomerania. He studied at the Copenhagen Academy, then moved to Dresden in 1801, where he later became involved in the Romantic Movement and became friends with Friedrich. He developed a colour model based on a sphere, but died of tuberculosis in 1810, when he was only 33.
Carl Friedrich Lessing (1808–1880)
Born in what is now Wrocław in Poland, he trained at the Academy of Art in Berlin, then moved to the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts in 1826, where he became a member of the Düsseldorf ‘School’ of Painting.
Carl Friedrich Lessing 1828-36
Carl Friedrich Lessing 1837-78
A characteristic if not distinctive theme in German Romantic paintings are figures that are looking away from the viewer into the landscape, so showing their back, hence in German Rückenfigur, ‘back-figure’. These feature in the paintings of most of these artists.
Rückenfigur
Nocturnes
Ships
Barren trees
Other common themes
Peder Balke (1804–1887)
A Norwegian and a pupil of JC Dahl in Dresden, he trained at the art academy in Stockholm, Sweden. When still a student in the summer of 1830, he walked through the mountains in Telemark to Bergen, then back to Hallingdal, sketching for later paintings. In 1832 he toured Finnmark in much the same way, which inspired him to paint the remote coast of northern Norway, including North Cape.
Thomas Fearnley (1802–1842)
Born in south-east Norway, he trained at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft, the Art Academy in Copenhagen, then in its sister academy in Stockholm. In 1828 he went to Germany, and the following year became a student of JC Dahl in Dresden. When in Munich early in 1842, he died of typhoid when he was only 39.
Thomas Fearnley 1
Thomas Fearnley 2
Knud Andreassen Baade (1808–1879)
Born on the coast of south-west Norway, he trained at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen. He went to Dresden in 1836 to be taught by JC Dahl, and became influenced by Friedrich.
Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901)
Born in Basel, Switzerland, he studied at the Düsseldorf Academy, then became a major Swiss painter.
Arnold Böcklin 1
Arnold Böcklin 2
Arkhyp Kuindzhi (1841-1910)
A Pontic Greek painter from Mariupol in the far south-east of Ukraine, he initially studied in the Crimean studio of the great marine artist Ivan Aivazovsky. Later studied at the Imperial Academy in Saint Petersburg, where he joined the Wanderers (Peredvizhniki). He enjoyed early success in selling paintings to Pavel Tretyakov, and returned to Ukraine throughout his career to paint its landscapes.
Hans Gude (1825–1903)
Born and initially educated in Christiania (now Oslo, Norway), he studied at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, Germany. On completion he returned to Norway where he became one of the founding fathers of Norwegian landscape painting.
The last of these artists who were influenced by the German Romantic painters, notably Caspar David Friedrich and J C Dahl, is the Norwegian Hans Gude (1825–1903).
Born and initially educated in Christiania (now Oslo, Norway), Gude started his studies at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1842. There he joined a recently formed landscape class taught by Johann Wilhelm Schirmer. Gude rejected the conventional teaching that landscape paintings should be composed according to classical or aesthetic principles, preferring instead to paint thoroughly realistically, and true to nature. On completion of his studies, probably in about 1846, he returned to Norway.
Landscape Study from Vågå (1846) is an excellent example of one of his early oil studies, and was probably completed in front of the motif, in Norway’s mountainous Oppland county north of the Jotunheimen Mountains. Although its background is loose and vague, foreground detail is meticulous for a work that appears to have been painted en plein air.
Winter Afternoon from 1847 is a studio painting that wouldn’t look out of place on a greetings card, and a stark contrast.
Tessefossen in Vågå at Midday (1848) is a relatively large studio painting that seems more typical of an American landscape painter of the day.
Early in his career, Gude struggled to paint realistic figures, and in several works he enlisted the help of Adolph Tidemand to paint those in for him.
Among the results of this collaboration are some of his most spectacular works, such as Bridal Journey in Hardanger from 1848. Gude’s highly detailed and realistic landscape is set in the far south-west of Norway, in the region to the east of Bergen, where one of the world’s largest and most spectacular fjords carves its way from glacier to the sea.
Although not a particularly large canvas, it’s as meticulously detailed as might have been expected from a Pre-Raphaelite or German Romantic artist, although its colours aren’t as brash. Gude became particularly interested in reflections on water later in his career.
By the Mill Pond (1850) seems to have been another plein air study, but is so detailed that it would be hard to class it as a sketch. When looked at more carefully, though, many of its apparently precise passages turn out to consist of highly gestural marks, as in the lichens on the boulders in the foreground, and the small waterfall at the back. It’s also interesting in containing a figure, who may be Betsy Anker, whom Gude married in the summer of that year.
This later collaboration with Tidemand, Fishing with a Harpoon (1851), is a wonderful nocturne showing night fishing in sheltered waters, another masterpiece of detailed realism and influenced by German Romanticism.
In 1854, Gude was appointed professor in succession to his former teacher Schirmer, which was remarkable recognition for the Norwegian who was not yet thirty years old. He tendered his resignation three years later, but didn’t leave Düsseldorf for a further five years.
Although painted in the studio, his Norwegian Highlands from 1857 appears based on studies made in front of the motif, and retains traditional earth-based colours typical of Friedrich or Dahl.
During the 1850s his paintings had aroused some interest in the UK, so in 1862 Gude travelled to Wales to try to develop his British market.
This painting of what he called ‘Eføybroen’, which might be an ‘Efoy’ Bridge, in North Wales was completed in 1863 from studies made in the previous autumn.
He also painted some grander landscapes of The Lledr Valley in Wales (1864), where he stayed during this campaign.
Gude continued to work by painting studies en plein air, which he took back to the studio and worked up into finished paintings. In contrast, local British painters at the time tended to complete their finished works in front of the motif, and seldom painted landscapes in the studio. When his paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1863 and 1864, they achieved little recognition, and failed to sell.
At the end of 1863, Gude was offered the post of professor at the Baden School of Art in Karlsruhe, which he accepted, as there was still no academy of fine art in Norway. During his tenure there, many Norwegians were students, including Kitty Kielland, Eilif Peterssen, Christian Krohg, and Frits Thaulow.
While he was teaching in Karlsruhe, Gude continued to promote the practice of painting en plein air, and his figures steadily improved. Fjord Landscape with People (1875) shows a typical period scene, with figures, cattle, horses, sailing vessels, and another of his wide open views.
Gude also worked in watercolours, and during his later career visited Scotland on several occasions, where he painted this almost monochrome view of an Estuary at Brodick, Arran, Scotland in 1877.
Gude’s watercolour Landscape with Tarbert Castle, Scotland (1877) shows one of the most famous ruined castles on the west coast of Scotland, on the shore of East Loch Tarbert, at the north end of the Kintyre peninsula.
Sandvik Fjord (1879) is a startlingly detailed depiction of a view from above Sandviken, now the northern suburbs of the Norwegian city of Bergen, looking to the west and the island of Askøy.
In 1880, Gude moved to teach at the Academy of Art in Berlin.
He painted Oban Bay in 1889 following another visit to Scotland, showing the small bay beside the town of Oban on the west coast of northern Scotland. This bay opens out to the Sound of Kerrera, and is now a busy ferry port serving the Western Isles; at this time it seems to have been but a small fishing port. The prominent building in the distance just to the left of the centre of the painting is Saint Columba’s Cathedral, the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop for the Western Isles. The distant mountains are those of the Morvern Peninsula, on the opposite shore of Loch Linnhe.
The Jetty at Feste near Moss (1898) shows another marine view in the far south-east of Norway, on the eastern side of the broad fjord that leads north to Oslo.
Gude retired to Berlin in 1901, and died there in 1903, one of the founding fathers of Norwegian and Nordic landscape painting.
Reference
The influence of German Romanticism, as expressed in the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich and JC Dahl, extended well beyond the confines of modern Germany. Among those thought to have been influenced is a Pontic Greek painter from Mariupol in the far south-east of Ukraine, Arkhyp Kuindzhi (1841-1910).
After spending some of his youth in the nearby Russian city of Taganrog, when he was fourteen he travelled to Feodosiia in the east of Crimea, to work and study in the studio of the great marine artist Ivan Aivazovsky. Although Kuindzhi received little teaching from the master himself, he was influenced by him, and taught mostly by Adolf Fessler, another of Aivazovsky’s pupils.
In 1860, Kuindzhi moved back to Taganrog to work until he travelled to Saint Petersburg, where he became a student at the Imperial Academy in 1868. There he joined the Wanderers (Peredvizhniki) in 1870, leaving the Academy two years later. He met with early success, selling one of his early paintings to the merchant banker Pavel Tretyakov for his collection in Moscow, and in 1874 was awarded a bronze medal in London. Throughout his career he returned to Ukraine to paint its landscapes.
Kuindzhi’s Chumak Road in Mariupol from 1875 shows one of the major activities in this part of the Ukraine at the time, trading using wagons hauled by a pair of oxen. Chumaks had flourished in the seventeenth century, selling and transporting commodities including salt, fish and grain. By the end of the century, competition from the developing railways had put them into decline.
Following his influence by Aivazovsky, Kuindzhi soon specialised in painting in spectacular light. After a Thunderstorm (1879) is an oil sketch capturing the brilliant colour and light following heavy rain on the steppe.
He also fell in love with the great River Dnipro, and painted it in a series of views, among them The Dnipro in the Morning from 1881, showing his fine control of detail and aerial perspective.
It’s this nocturne, Moonlit Night on the Dnipro, here seen in one of his copies from 1882, that Kuindzhi is most famous for, and the strongest evidence for his Romantic influence. Silhouetted against the moonlight reflected from the river is a solitary windmill, and in the foreground are a few cottages.
In 1892, Kuindzhi was appointed a professor at the Imperial Academy, where he taught until being dismissed in 1897 for supporting the protests of students.
Between 1890-95, he painted Midday. Herd on the Steppe, one of his many views with a low horizon and heaped cumulus clouds so typical of summer in this area.
Kuindzhi’s Darial Pass. Moonlit Night, painted following a visit in 1890-95, shows a section of this 13 kilometre (8 miles) long Military Road connecting Russia and Georgia in the tranquil conditions of summer. This gorge runs north-south through the Caucasus Mountains, and has seen extensive use by armies and traders.
Landscape in Crimea (1896) is a wonderfully loose view of the rocky cliffs beside a rough Black Sea.
Red Sunset on the Dnipro (1905) is one of few Ukrainian paintings to have made their way beyond Ukraine and Russia: this is in the Met in New York, and is a fine example of Kuindzhi’s paintings of altered light.
His Night from 1905-08 shows horses grazing on the bank of a broad river, quite probably the Dnipro, under the light of a crescent moon, again very Romantic.
Another of his favourite themes is the Birch Grove, here in one of his many undated oil sketches.
In 1909, Kuindzhi founded the Society of Artists, which was later named in his honour. He died the following year, 1910, in Saint Petersburg.
References
Wikipedia
Andrey Kurkov and others (2022) Treasures of Ukraine, A Nation’s Cultural Heritage, Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978 0 500 02603 8.
Konstantin Akinsha and others (2022) In the Eye of the Storm, Modernism in Ukraine 1900-1930s, Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978 0 500 29715 5.
The Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901) had already demonstrated his influence by Caspar David Friedrich and other German Romantic painters by the early 1870s, when he was working in Munich again. He then spent almost a decade settled in Florence, until 1885.
Spring in a Narrow Gorge (1881) seems to be a straightforward landscape painting, of a few birch trees in fresh Spring foliage (although the reference in the title isn’t to the season), in a narrow gorge. The water source of the title quite probably runs among the rocks at the base of the gorge, but isn’t readily visible.
Böcklin’s Summer Day (1881) shows a small river meandering through meadows, with summer flowers out on the grass, and white blossom on the strange-looking trees. In the background is a town, and half a dozen children are playing in or near the water, in the foreground. It has an air of calm and timelessness, otherwise it doesn’t seem to invite any deeper reading.
Ruin by the Sea (1881) makes its intent clear in returning to a more Romantic theme. The ruins of an old building are just above the waves. Growing within the broken walls are three cypress trees which lean away from the prevailing wind. Above them the sun’s rays break through banks of cloud in a dramatic light, and a large flock of crows are arriving to perch on the top of the walls. The ruin represents decay, perhaps that of later life, and the crows are harbingers of death. Cypress trees also have a strong association with cemeteries.
Many artists associated with German Romantic and Symbolist movements painted groups of worshippers within ancient trees, often under similar titles to Böcklin’s Sacred Grove, from 1882. The nine figures here are shrouded in white habits indicating their religious association. On top of a stone altar is a bright flame, at which three of them are bent low and kneeling in obeisance. Behind the grove, in the distance, is what appears to be a large stone building like a temple or monastery. In the foreground is a large pond in which white flowers are starting to open. However, the foliage of the trees indicates that it is autumn/fall.
Between 1880 and 1886, Böcklin painted a total of five different versions of his most famous work, Island (or Isle) of the Dead. Each shows a similar island, probably based in part on the English Cemetery in Florence, where his own baby daughter had been buried. Each shows the deceased being rowed across to the island, which calls on the classical myth of Charon, who rows the dead over the rivers Styx or Acheron to the underworld.
Böcklin painted the first version in 1880 for his patron Alexander Günther. This shows the boat just outside the harbour of a small rocky island which appears to be lined with mausoleums. The light is remarkable, seemingly a bright twilight, against dark water and sky. However the direction of travel of the boat is ambiguous, as it may actually be moving away from the island and towards the viewer.
While he was working on that version, the widow of a financier, Marie Berna, visited his studio in Florence, and commissioned a smaller version in memory of her first husband, who had died of diphtheria in 1865. For this, the artist added the standing figure and coffin, which he also added to the first version. At that time, Böcklin had titled the painting Tomb Island.
The third version of Island of the Dead was painted in 1883 for Böcklin’s dealer. The first two versions had encountered criticism. He accordingly changed the lighting and closed in on his motif, making this version much clearer that the boat was entering the island’s tiny harbour. Although less dramatically lit, this adds clarity to the most important part of the painting, as shown in the detail below.
He painted a fourth version in 1884, which was sadly destroyed during the Second World War.
The fifth version was commissioned by the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig, and was painted in 1886.
In 1888, Böcklin painted a complement, with the title Island of Life, and in the year of his death, a sixth version was in progress, which was completed by his son Carlo.
A great deal has been written and speculated about this remarkable series of paintings. Böcklin evokes mood, of a poignant calm, of death and loss. During the 1880s, its reputation grew. It was reproduced as a print by Max Klinger that sold strongly. Reproductions were bought by the Swedish artist Prince Eugen, and Georges Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France. By the early twentieth century, several artists had painted their own interpretations of the image. It has influenced countless painters, poets, writers, and other artists since.
Böcklin’s Attack by Pirates (1886) is perhaps a more direct German Romantic work, showing a group of pirates attacking some Italianate buildings atop the sheer cliffs of a tiny island connected by a viaduct. The attackers have already set light to the buildings, casting an eerie red light against the black clouds. Perhaps the artist felt that he was coming under similar attack by his critics.
That year, Böcklin moved from Florence to Zürich in Switzerland, where he turned more to narrative and mythological works. Then in 1892, he moved for the last time, to San Domenico near Florence, where he remained until he died in early 1901.
The Chapel, from 1898, is one of Böcklin’s last Romantic landscapes, and returns to similar sea-swept ruins as those in Ruin by the Sea above, but with some important changes. Here there is no doubt that the waves are destroying the remains of this chapel, as they crash against its walls. The cypresses are still curved with the wind, but instead of black crows there are white doves of peace. On the remains of the steps at the right are red flowers, which could have several associations, including love.
The influence of Caspar David Friedrich, JC Dahl and the German Romantics can be seen in the works of several artists from later in the nineteenth century, among them Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901), a major Swiss painter who was extremely well known at the time.
Böcklin was born in Basel, Switzerland, and studied at the Düsseldorf Academy, where he became a friend of Anselm Feuerbach. During his training, he visited Antwerp and Brussels, then in 1848 went to Paris to copy in the Louvre.
His early landscapes were technically accomplished, mainly upland views such as Mountain Lake from 1846, typical of Swiss landscape painting at the time.
Böcklin soon showed interest in motifs derived more from the paintings of Friedrich and his friend and pupil Carl Gustav Carus. Landscape with Castle Ruins from 1847 is an example of this ‘Gothic’ Romantic style, its serene half-light full of foreboding.
Megalithic Tomb (1847) introduces anonymous figures who appear to be engaged in a mystical ceremony at this isolated location just below the snowline in the mountains. In the foreground is a boggy lake with a heron-like bird stepping out from cover.
Even his relatively plain landscapes acquire a feeling of something else. In his Mountain Landscape with Waterfall from about 1849, the foreground is in shadow, and the distant peaks are well-lit. Visible at the right of the waterfall is a wild animal, and there’s a shadowy figure perhaps in the lower right corner. Or maybe it’s just the light playing tricks.
In 1850, Böcklin moved to Rome, where he started to paint in the Campagna.
In the Alban Hills from 1851 is a fine depiction of these hills about 20 km (12 miles) south-east of the city of Rome. Unlike many artists working in the Campagna at the time, Böcklin must have painted this work in the studio from extensive sketches and studies made in front of the motif. Look closely, though, and there’s a dark figure standing beside a small smoking fire, to the left of the central mass of trees, and further to the left might be the entrance to a dark cavern.
Böcklin uses more dramatic lighting in his Roman Landscape from 1852. Its dark wood is very dark indeed, not the sort of place to enter alone. At the foot of the prominent tree at the right is what appears to be a woman undressing, as if going to bathe in the stygian gloom.
In 1853, when he was in Rome, Böcklin married, and started to raise his family there. Six years later, though, he nearly died of typhoid. By that time, his mythological paintings were achieving critical recognition, and he was appointed professor at the Weimar Academy in Germany. He stayed there for two years before moving back to Rome in 1862, where started work on his first major landscape painting: Villa by the Sea.
Böcklin painted his first version of Villa by the Sea in 1864, using a mixture of encaustic (wax) paints and resins. Those have sadly not aged well, but this shows a romanesque villa at the water’s edge. Beside it is a small bay, where a woman stands looking at the sea in front of her.
Böcklin painted a second version the following year, using more conventional oil paints. The villa now appears overgrown and partly in ruins, its cypress and other trees leaning away from the prevailing wind. The woman, dressed in black, is now cradling her head with one hand as she looks at the sea.
In another version painted between 1871-74, now in the Städel in Frankfurt, it’s last light, with a band of cloud on fire with the last rays of the setting sun. Although the garden of the villa is well-grown, it appears in better condition, and the woman still stands staring at the sea.
Modern reading of these paintings has been influenced by an account published by William Ritter in 1895, stating that they tell the story of Iphigenia in Tauris. Although Ritter appears to have consulted with the artist, Böcklin himself isn’t known to have confirmed this, and there are no specific clues in any of their versions.
Iphigenia was the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, who was to be sacrificed to give the Greek fleet favourable winds so that they could attack Troy. There is no coherent account of her fate, but in one version her life was spared, and she was rescued to become priestess of Artemis on Tauris. There, she watched for the arrival of sailors, who would be captured to be offered in sacrifice to Artemis. The painting could thus be centred on waiting, death, and the passage of time, which are at least consistent with what Böcklin depicted.
Böcklin continued to move between Germany, Switzerland and Italy. In 1866, he went back to Basel, then on to Munich in 1871, where he painted the work below.
In his Mountain Castle with a Train of Warriors from 1871, a small band of warriors clad in scarlet are making their way up a track towards an ancient castle overlooking a valley. Down below them, amid a stand of cypress trees, is a villa. There are no other clues as to any underlying narrative.
Knud Andreassen Baade was born and brought up on the coast of south-west Norway. He started his training as a painter at the age of fifteen, and transferred to the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen in 1827. He returned to Norway to work as a portraitist in about 1830, where he also developed his skills with landscapes.
The Wreck from about 1835 shows a sailing ship in the final stages of being wrecked on the rocks of the west coast of Norway, a theme common to the German Romantic painters.
In 1836, he went to the city of Dresden to be taught by JC Dahl, and became influenced by Caspar David Friedrich, who drew Baade working at his easel.
He sketched this dusk Cloud Study in oils on paper in 1838.
Baade’s finished oil painting of Dresden at Sunset from 1838 establishes him as one of the German Romantic artists. Although its theme is characteristic of Friedrich and his followers, Baade has chosen a moment when there’s sufficient light to see colours and fine detail in the figures, boat and buildings, and he uses a richer palette than in similar views painted by other Romantics.
The following year he developed eye problems, and was forced to return to Norway.
In 1846, Baade painted this violent Storm on the Norwegian Coast. The sea has turned to spume, and the mast and rigging of a sailing vessel indicate that it’s in the process of being wrecked.
That year he moved to Munich, where he established his reputation as a landscape artist, specialising in nocturnes of the Norwegian coast. He also travelled widely in Germany, where he painted dramatic views of its mountains.
In 1850, he continued to sketch the sky towards sunset, in this Cloud Study.
On the West Coast of Norway, painted in 1852, is a more tranquil nocturne showing small boats moored on a rocky beach.
Baade’s late Moonlight Over a Rocky Coast from 1868 is more typical of German Romanticism, with a sailing boat idle in a small natural harbour. Silhouetted on the nearby crag are two figures, so dark that they didn’t need to be Rückenfiguren.
Baade’s health declined, and he died in Munich in 1879.
Some forthcoming talks are helping me think through a new book, which I want to start writing in 2023 once Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future is out in September 2023 (more on that in a post coming soon).
One of the talks is at the Asia Society on March 1 and has to do with concepts of hell and the afterlife in China–especially how this played out after the Communist Party tried to destroy most values. Details here.
The second, and more relevant talk to my new book is on the idea of Civil Religion in China. I took a stab at this in early 2023 at a talk at Fordham University and will do so in a more systematic way in March at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, aka Germany’s Institute for Advanced Studies.
I’ll be on a podium with Franciscus Verellen, a distinguished historian of religious life in middle-period China (and along with Kristofer Schipper the editor of one of the great recent works of sinological study, The Taoist Canon, which is a magically written and illustrated two-volume companion to the canon, which is essentially an encyclopedia of Taoist thought).
Prof. Verellen will talk about state and religion in classical China and I’ll talk about the concept in the country today, especially as the Communist Party uses it to cement legitimacy.
You can see details of both talks on this site’s “Talks and Media Appearances” page. The German talk will be in German. Both will be posted to YouTube, and I think the German talk will have subtitles.
If you get a chance to hear these and have feedback, please do send me an email at ij@ian-johnson.com I’d appreciate any feedback.
Thanks!
The post Hell, Politics, and Religion appeared first on Ian Johnson.
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