You saw it here first…

In Berlin last week, I dropped into the Altes Nationalgalerie to see Caspar David Friedrich’s famous Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. I’ve always loved this image of a figure seen from behind, gazing beyond the abyss to a distant peak. It’s often seen as the perfect representation of the Sublime in art, created at a moment of high Romanticism,  portraying the individual contemplating the awesome power of Nature. The solitary individual stands on a precipice, facing an unknown future. Then it dawned on me that the lone figure, seen from behind, facing distant dangers, remains a pretty popular image – if only on the jacket of numerous novels, including, it must be said, Faith and Beauty and Solitaire. Never let it be said Clara Vine is not Romantic.