Oak trees and thoughts on Caspar David Friedrich’s painting “The Lone Tree”

Caspar David Friedrich’s painting Der einsame Baum (“The Lone Tree”) (see below, upper) features an oak tree that demands the attention of the observer. Clouds seem to form a shallow dome over it and the foothills of the distant mountains behind the tree slope down on either side to further emphasise its presence. The tree retains most of its leaves, but the uppermost branches appear dead and this is a feature of old oak trees [1,2]. Without going into the complex causes of this dieback, it is common to see oak trees with apparently dead branches in the crown. I saw a pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) with dead branches while driving through Forncett in Norfolk (see below, lower – I should state that I parked my motor car before taking the image using my mobile telephone). Further examples can be seen in three oaks from an avenue in Berkhamsted (shown below, bottom), with a vigorous healthy tree on the left; a tree with some die-back in the centre; and a tree with more developed die-back on the right. It is highly unlikely that leaves will re-appear in these dead and dying branches in future seasons.

Many deciduous trees that produce new leaves in spring also show a powerful ability to regenerate after having been damaged, often intentionally by tree surgeons [3]. We have a local example: a London plane that recovered its loss of leaves after a few months (see below). When the tree had its branches lopped, I felt a little sad, but I knew that the tree would recover and produce new shoots and leaves. It was quite different to watching the leaves falling in autumn, itself a mildly sad event, although I know that this promotes the essential cycling of organic matter. Once dead, however, even deciduous trees are not going to recover and they leave a ghostly lattice of branches that have their own appeal, not just to Friedrich but to other artists, like David Hockney or Trevor Grimshaw [4,5].

Looking at Friedrich’s painting Der einsame Baum (“The Lone Tree”) in more detail, we see the symbolism involved. Of course, we don’t know what the artist was thinking when he painted the work, but we can attempt some explanations. I take as my excuse for making this analysis a quote attributed to Friedrich and given in Grave’s book [6] “…thus it is a great merit, maybe the greatest thing the artist is capable of, when he touches the spirit and arouses thoughts, feelings and emotions in the beholder, even if these are not his own”.

In the distance are massive mountains, showing the blue colouring of Rayleigh scattering that indicates that they are far away. Our vision thus meets a barrier, a device used by many painters, and we are deflected back to the main subjects of the work. As we come “out” of the painting and away from the sloping foothills, we see smoke from the chimneys of houses in a village that also has a church with a spire (see below, upper). The plain is then crossed by a row of trees with cottages and what appears to be a ruined church, and nearer to us are more trees growing next to a pond and some of the oaks have dieback in their upper branches (see below, lower). Dieback here appears advanced and there is the stump of one tree, indicating the eventual fate of all of them. Then we come to our main subject, the solitary oak, against the trunk of which rests a shepherd, with his flock scattered around him, while the foreground also has another pond. The painting was one of a pair commissioned by Joachim Wagener and completed in 1822, the other being Moonrise over the Sea. They were to represent evening and morning, so we know that Der einsame Baum shows the morning light and the shepherd has been with his flock from the early hours, if not through the night. We can also surmise that it is early autumn as the smoke coming from chimneys suggests a chill in the air, yet the tees are in full leaf.

So, what of the symbolism? I will describe my interpretation using headings.

The mountains

The mountains not only provide a backdrop for the scene, but they are also massive and continue into the distance. Their magnificence is awe-inspiring and reminds us of the sublime and, in turn, the peacefulness of the rural scene that we focus upon.

The church(es)

The churches are symbols of Christianity and all that is involved in that religion. We assume that Christianity is important to those living in the village, who will thus believe in Heaven, and in life after death, accepting that Jesus Christ died, and was resurrected, to save us from sin. The painting also suggests strongly the importance of Nature as a source of spirituality, something that was of special importance to Friedrich [6]. As Caroline Levisse writes: “ …according to Friedrich, it is possible to find in the world around us scenery, objects, and phenomena that can elicit a religious experience” [7]. (If the building in the near distance is a ruined church, I cannot provide an explanation for its existence in the painting, other than that it is based on a real landscape. Why is it ruined, if it is a church?).

Impending death

Oak trees showing naked branches at the crown are likely dying and thus present a metaphor for our own impending death. This is a dominant feature of the lone oak we see and, while it continues to live after shedding its leaves in autumn and then producing more in spring, it has only a limited time span before it dies and becomes a stump. Stumps have strong appeal and a local example (see below, upper [and since fallen]) became a totem for me, just as the stump of a felled tree in east Yorkshire did for David Hockney until it was vandalised [4] (below, lower). Looking at the oak in Friedrich’s painting, we thus drift to thoughts of our own death, while continuing to be alive, even after parts of our body begin to fail (although we are nor deciduous, of course).

The living oak tree produces successors that grow from acorns, and many humans produce offspring that survive us. This leads us to the idea that life continues after death, reminding us of the selfish gene concept and the “immortality” of genes. Thoughts then turn to the idea of life after death and whether there is a hereafter for the soul, or not. Then we are drawn to ideas of reincarnation on Earth or the passage to some spiritual domain, both of which can bring comfort.

Isolation and loneliness

The isolation of the oak tree poses an important question from a biological perspective – how did it get here? It will have grown from an acorn, but how did the acorn get to this position, when there is no evidence of there being a parent oak tree or, indeed, other oak trees close by? Perhaps it was carried by an animal, or moved there by a child?

I asked members of my family what the painting meant to them and the dominant reply was a sense of loneliness, fitting given the title of the work and its focus on dying. In the time leading up to death it is possible to be very lonely; after all we are the ones going through the process. We die alone and we are likely to feel the loneliness of this in our last hours or days, even when surrounded by family.

The shepherd

As the painting is set in the early morning, and the shepherd is with his flock (see below), and may have been through the night, he is clearly both attentive and protective. This reminds us of Jesus as the Good Shepherd quoted in St John’s gospel in the Holy Bible (Authorised King James Version, chapter 10 verse 14): “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.” The symbolism in Friedrich’s painting may thus carry the Christian message that, after death, one’s soul can only enter Heaven if we are in the flock of Christian believers.

Water

Trees require water to grow and it is transmitted to their leaves via a complex of xylem vessels. It is then, together with carbon dioxide and sunlight, converted into simple sugars during photosynthesis, a process that is mediated by the green pigment chlorophyll. Trees without leaves, like those that are lopped or have dying branches, will have a reduced ability to generate sugars and, unless more leaves are produced, the tree will not produce sufficient energy to maintain growth or, in some cases, survival. Water is thus essential for tree growth and the lone oak in Der einsame Baum is located next to a pond, so water is unlikely to be limiting.

We are again drawn to St John’s Gospel in the Holy Bible (Authorised King James Version, chapter 4 verse 14): “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I [Jesus] shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” This reference to water, so important for living organisms, means that the ponds shown in Friedrich’s painting provide us with a metaphor for the importance of Christian faith in allowing eternal life

It all points to Friedrich’s Christian religious beliefs. Crosses, large crucifixes and churches feature prominently in his work, alongside trees and landscapes. Whether one is sympathetic to his beliefs, or not, the subjects in Der einsame Baum show how paintings can offer us thought-provoking images that capitalise on our fear of ageing and death and how this fear can be alleviated. One can only wonder what was in Friedrich’s mind when he created the work and ponder whether it was anything like my interpretation That aside, it’s a marvellous painting by a true Romantic.

[1] https://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/how-to-record/species-guides/oak/

[2] https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/fthr/pest-and-disease-resources/chronic-oak-decline-dieback/

[3] https://penritharborist.com.au/the-future-protecting-that-trees-regenerate-after-being-cut-down-for-a-sustainable-environment

[4] Martin Gayford (2016) A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney. Thames & Hudson, London.

[5] https://rwotton.blogspot.com/2022/09/trevor-grimshaw-and-caspar-david.html

[6] Johannes Grave (2012) Caspar David Friedrich. Prestel, Munich

[7] https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/31-may/features/features/caspar-david-friedrich-faith-on-canvas

 

 

 

 

An explanation for religious visions?

Hallucinations are characteristic of some forms of mental illness and can be frightening, causing distress to those who endure them. They can also occur after taking hallucinogenic drugs, with the possibility of both pleasant and unpleasant "trips".

Visions are part of the lore of religions like Judaism and Christianity. These visions may result from mental illness or from drug use, but they also occur when these conditions do not apply. There may be an expectancy of seeing an angel, or the Virgin Mary, and an excited mental state may be common in these cases, but no drugs are involved and nor is mental illness. What then is the basis of these visions?

Let's begin to answer that question by looking at two visions described in the Holy Bible:

Daniel's vision [1]

Having seen a number of animals (this must have been in a dream as he was lying face down?), Daniel then recounts:

 ..there stood before me as the appearance of a man.. ..he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face.. ..as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face towards the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright

Cornelius' vision [2]

Cornelius was a devout Christian centurion who:

..saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him..

I assume that the ninth hour was in daylight and that his vision was not a dream, but we have no information on his state of wakefulness.

Both these visions, and those of others, could be explained by Charles Bonnet Syndrome. Charles Bonnet was born in Geneva in 1720 and qualified as a lawyer, although he probably never practised the law [3]. He was always fascinated by Natural History and wrote papers in the field of Entomology while still training to be a lawyer, later making many contributions to Botany when his eyesight began to fail during his twenties. Bonnet could then no longer work on small-scale observation and it was not only his sight that failed - he already had hearing loss from the age of seven [3]. As someone who suffered from sensory deprivation, he became interested in this subject and the way that it influenced the incidence of visions. He studied the phenomenon in his elderly grandfather and it is from these descriptions that he is best known in the medical world.

We can describe Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS) as [4]:

..the occurrence of recurrent or persistent complex visual hallucinations often of a pleasant nature, which may be considered pseudohallucinations, in individuals with preserved insight and intellectual function without altered consciousness, cognitive or psychiatric disturbances, sleep disorders, or focal neurological lesions and often associated with ophthalmic pathology. CBS occurs predominantly in elderly, visually impaired people.

Further in their review, Menon and colleagues [4] state:

The typical CBS hallucination has been variously described as a sudden sharply focussed, immobile image, most often the face or figure of a person, which occurs when the patient is alert, with eyes open and vanishes spontaneously after a period of seconds.

However, there are other causes than failing eyesight for the occurrence of hallucinations [4]:

Charles Bonnet-type hallucinations have also been documented in the absence of ocular or neurological disease, in type II diabetes mellitus with normal vision, in leprosy, in association with HIV infection.. ..and in the elderly, where they can occur in the absence of apparent cause.. ..it is interesting that fatigue and disturbances of vigilance have been implicated as relevant to the emergence of hallucinations, as they are more likely to occur during states of drowsiness.

Knowing this about the incidence of CBS, does it provide an explanation for the visions of Daniel and Cornelius described above? Could the phenomenon explain other visions that are so vivid to "observers" that do not have mental illness or use drugs? The visions are certainly real to those that have them and this is not surprising if they result from the neural pathways used to interpret visual images from the eyes via the optic nerves. It is rather like a mental short-cut that accesses the processing power of the brain, without the need for a direct stimulus.

[1] http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/ section of Daniel Chapter 8

[2] http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/ Acts Chapter 10 verse 3

[3] Thomas R. Hedges Jr. (2007) Charles Bonnet, his life, and his Syndrome. Survey of Ophthalmology 52: 111-114.

[4] G. Jayakrishna Menon, Imran Rahman, Sharmila J. Menon and Gordon N. Dutton (2003) Complex visual hallucinations in the visually impaired: the Charles Bonnet Syndrome. Survey of Ophthalmology 48: 58-72.

“.........life is moving peacefully towards its close”

Given the obvious concern of the public, Lord Dawson, physician to King George V, issued a statement on 20th January 1936 stating that: “The King's life is moving peacefully towards its close”. It is a moving and memorable sentence but the peaceful end was not a natural one as, later that day, Dawson administered two injections which effectively killed the King. One was of morphine and the other of cocaine. Dawson took this step to ensure that an announcement of the King’s death could be made in The Times on the following morning, as this would be considered the best way of breaking the news by the Establishment, a powerful presence, then and now, in British society. For King George V, death would bring an end to his suffering with bronchitis and other lung problems associated with years of heavy smoking, and the actions of Lord Dawson remain the highest profile case of euthanasia in the public domain.

Bertrand Dawson was born in 1864 and studied at University College London where he read for a BSc degree before going on to study medicine. One of his most influential teachers was E. Ray Lankester, with whom Dawson took courses in Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in the academic year 1882-3. ¹ Lankester had been re-appointed to his post at UCL earlier in 1882, having accepted the Regius Chair of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh, and then rapidly resigned this prestigious position when he realised that he preferred the academic conditions and way of life he enjoyed in London. Lankester was impeccably connected and had the facility to make friends across a wide spectrum - Karl Marx, Anna Pavlova, Sir Henry Wood, Sir Edmund Gosse - and many other leaders of the Establishment of the time. He also had many excellent contacts within science, acquired initially from his father’s network (as we would call it now), but then from his own circle, and he was a man of enthusiasm and presence, unafraid of taking a stand for things be believed in. ² Lankester must have made a strong impression on Dawson and probably encouraged him in his studies leading to medicine - he was a strong believer in “Medicine and Economic Zoology” - and his ease, and contacts, in Society would also have impressed the young man.

Throughout his life, Lankester preferred to be called a Naturalist, as this “linked him to his father’s friends” like Henfrey, Hooker, Owen and [Philip Henry] Gosse. ³ In contrast to the devout and immovable Christian beliefs of the latter, his view was that “Christianity was a compound of two things; a system of morality approved by the united conscience of civilised man, and a fantastic mythology”. ³ Typical of the man, this difference did not deflect from profound respect for Gosse’s achievements. ⁴ Lankester died aged 82, on 15th August 1929, during the last years of the reign of King George V and we have a marvellous painting made months before he died. ⁵  

Gone is the energetic and powerful figure of most of his adult life and the description given by Lester and Bowler of the picture sums up Lankester’s sad condition: ³ “Early in 1929 [or was it late 1928?] Sir William Orpen painted a portrait of Lankester that attracted much attention at the Academy exhibition. Wearing a brown tweed jacket, Lankester holds an open book and reclines on a couch. There is great knowledge and great weariness in the lined face.” The latter sentence would fit equally well to the late self-portraits by Rembrandt and the loss of faculties and the feeling of slipping towards death is something, accidents excepted, that we all face. Artists sum it up so well. 

 

¹ I am grateful to Robert Winckworth of the UCL Records Office for providing this information

² http://www.ucl.ac.uk/research-frontiers/contest/wotton.pdf

³ Lester, J and Bowler, P.J. (1995) E. Ray Lankester and the Making of Modern British Biology. British Society for the History of Science Monograph 9.

⁴ Gosse, E. (1890) The Naturalist of the Sea-Shore: The Life of Philip Henry Gosse. [Read in the 1896 Edition. London, Heinemann].

⁵ This image is reproduced courtesy of the Birmingham Museums Trust