"I must unite with my rocks and clouds ..."
The artist probably became acquainted with the wildly romantic rocky world of Saxon Switzerland shortly after his arrival through other painters working at the academy, such as the Swiss Adrian Zingg. At that time, the discovery for tourism was still to come.
Even in Caspar David Friedrich's day, Dresden artists knew the most spectacular vantage points, the most impressive motifs and the routes to them. They returned here again and again to observe, draw and paint. Their favourite spots and the paths to them merged into an ideal path. Friedrich had also used these paths. The 116 kilometre long "Malerweg" in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains follows many of these historic paths.