In which museum is Caspar David Friedrich's 'The Monk by the Sea' displayed?

Caspar David Friedrich’s The Monk by the Sea is displayed in the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

Friedrich painted the work in Dresden between 1808 and 1810. It was first exhibited at the Berlin Academy in 1810 alongside The Abbey in the Oakwood, another starkly atmospheric painting by the artist. King Frederick William III bought both works after the exhibition.

The composition is deliberately sparse: a tiny, solitary monk stands before broad bands of beach, sea, and sky. Rather than creating a conventional sense of depth, Friedrich reduces the landscape to vast horizontal expanses, making the human figure appear overwhelmed by nature and suggesting a spiritual encounter with the infinite.

The painting is often associated with German Romanticism’s interest in emotion, solitude, and the sublime. A common mix-up is to confuse it with Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, which features a larger figure seen from behind and belongs to a different museum context. The Monk by the Sea hangs beside The Abbey in the Oakwood at Berlin’s Alte Nationalgalerie.