In his self portrait, Friedrich represented himself as a serious, thoughtful man. His self-confident, interrogating gaze penetrates the viewer in order to expose his innermost images. By placing the head and the eyes in the very center of the depiction, the intellectual contribution to artistic creation is emphasized, while the classical drapery removes the subject from the context of his own age. [https://www.wga.hu/html_m/f/friedric/5/509fried.html]