[2] Considered one of Friedrich's masterpieces, the radical composition and subject matter were unusual for their time and the work was met with incomprehension.

[3] Friedrich began studying art with a drawing teacher from the University of Greifswald named Johann Gottfried Quistorp.

It rejected the Enlightenment ideas of rationalism and intellect in favor of religion, emotion, and culture.

[6] Like many other painters in the 19th century, Friedrich decided to focus on landscapes as the main subjects of his paintings.

[8] The collector Johann Gottlob von Quandt commissioned two pictures that were to symbolize the south and the north.

However, as Vasily Zhukovsky in a letter dated 1821 reported, Friedrich – himself does not even know what he will paint; he waits for the moment of inspiration, which (in his own words) occasionally comes in a dream.

In the winter of 1820–21, Friedrich made extensive oil studies of ice floes on the river Elbe, near Dresden.

[citation needed] The image created a lasting impression on the French sculptor David d'Angers during his visit to Dresden in 1834, which he described as follows: Friedrich has a somber spirit.

[6] It has been suggested that Friedrich gained his knowledge about the Arctic from the William Edward Parry's expedition.

However, because there were multiple reports and articles about the Arctic in Germany, it has never been confirmed that Friedrich used Parry's expedition to paint The Sea of Ice.

[7] As a child, Friedrich suffered a traumatic experience which involved his brother, Johann Christoffer, who on 8 December, 1787 fell through the ice on a body of water and died.

Friedrich's work shares with Géricault's a similar compositional framework[2] and bleak metaphorical outlook in relation to the unforgiving sea.

[6] The main theorists of the sublime are Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, and Friedrich Schiller.

[18] Architect Thom Mayne references The Sea of Ice as a primary influence on his approach to the dynamic relationship between architecture, landscape, and nature.