DALSGAARD, Christen

Danish painter. He began his art studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen in 1841. In the same year he began private studies with painter Martinus Rørbye. These lessons continued until 1847. In 1843 he began his studies at the Academy’s freehand drawing school, and the following year at the Academy’s plaster school. Home during the summer and holidays, he busied himself by filling sketchbooks with studies of the local landscape, costumes and way of life. These formed a lifelong basis for his art. He also began collecting local folk costumes, another lifelong interest.

In 1844 Dalsgaard came under the influence of the art historian Niels Lauritz Hoyen, who gave a famous lecture titled “On the conditions for the development of a Scandinavian national art.” Hoyen called for artists to search for subject matter in the folk life of their country instead of searching for themes in other lands, such as Italy (which was at that time considered a requirement for an artist’s training). Dalsgaard was a loyal follower of Hoyen’s artistic ideals, and forwent the customary journey to Italy, choosing rather to concentrate on themes closer to home.

In March 1846 he began studying at the Academy’s model school under professors Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Johan Ludvig Lund and Martinus Rørbye. He had his exhibition debut at Charlottenborg in 1847 and continued showing there every year with few exceptions.

In 1855 he painted his first altarpiece at the church in his hometown of Skive. He went on to paint a number of other altarpieces in the years to come. He had his big breakthrough in 1856 with the painting Mormons Visit a Country Carpenter. He painted his famous painting Surely He Will Come? in 1879.

Dalsgaard received the Academy’s Neuhausen’s prize in both 1859 and 1861. He began teaching drawing at Sorø Academy in 1862. Upon being selected, he became a member of the Academy of Art in 1872. He exhibited at the World Exhibition in Paris for the first time in 1878.

In 1890 he finished the first of twenty-one small Bible pictures, a project which he continued to work on for the next ten years. He was named a professor at the Academy of Art in 1892, and quit his position at Sorø Academy.

Christen Dalsgaard, like his contemporaries Julius Exner and Frederik Vermehren, painted primarily genre paintings, national romantic folk scenes rooted in the grasslands of Jutland. He paid great attention to details - folk costumes, the manners and habits of the people, and architecture and landscape. He was a storyteller. His artistic works, as well as those of his contemporaries, opened the way for more realistic paintings in the late 1800s.