View from the banks of the Elbe in Wehlen to Rathen - a place of inspiration for Caspar David Friedrich
"One's gaze is drawn eagerly to the Elbe flowing past and to the wooded hills that rise gently from the opposite bank. Everything is now more beautiful, more open, more lovely", wrote Caspar David Friedrich's contemporary and explorer of Saxon Switzerland, Wilhelm Leberecht Götzinger, in 1804 about the Wilkeaussicht just before the town of Wehlen. Friedrich was also fascinated by this view. Whether he actually drew from the Wilkeaussicht or from the Burgberg above the town on 14 June 1812 is disputed. A second drawing was made on the banks of the Elbe, on the path below the "Weiße Brüche" to Rathen.
