ECKERSBERG, Christoffer Wilhelm

After 1821 seascapes had become Eckersberg’s favourite subject. They allowed him to bring together his interest in nature, ships, and meteorology, and over the next three decades he had the opportunity to depict almost every conceivable type of ship in every marine situation imaginable.

Eckersberg had studied Russian ships of the line on two occasions before embarking on the painting of the “Asow” in 1828. Both times, however, his studies were made at Copenhagen, not Elsinore as shown in this picture. Thus, this painting is not a faithful reproduction of a single, specific scene; it is a presentation of what the ship would look like if viewed from a favourable position on the Øresund.

This compact and luminous seascape is not simply a momentary impression rapidly sketched nor a mere reproduction of reality. Rather, recent studies have shown that the special character of Eckersberg’s marine paintings is the result of long deliberation and a carefully planned structure which originated in Italian Renaissance art theory.

This view depicts the fourth-century Temple of Romulus and Remus, which forms the vestibule of the sixth-century Church of Sts Cosmas and Damian.

In Rome, between 1813 and 1816, Eckersberg produced a series of urban prospects remarkable for their scrupulously simple compositions and saturated hues. These studies were painted in repeated sittings before the motif in order to faithfully reproduce the effects of the Mediterranean sun on architectural ensembles.

During his years in Rome from 1813 to 1816, Eckersberg painted a large number of pictures of the city’s ancient ruins, particularly the old amphitheatre the Coliseum. He painted many views from the inside of the building, and here he has taken up position on the third storey, painting the view through three arches there.

Eckersberg began his open-air painting, previously unknown within Danish art, while in Rome, completing the painting on site. This gave him the opportunity to observe the scene more directly, and the rendition is characterised by great freshness and immediacy. He undoubtedly used binoculars to be able to faithfully reproduce the details in the background.

The two figures in the picture are probably the artist’s daughters, Julie and Emilie, who despite their small stature were adults when Eckersberg used them as models.

During the years around 1820, Eckersberg was busy painting portraits of the affluent citizens of Copenhagen. The artist’s greatest patron during his young years, the merchant Mendel Levin Nathanson, commissioned two large family portraits. In one of the two works he painted Nathanson’s two oldest daughters, Bella and Hanna, in a sparingly furnished drawing room with simple paneling and furniture, including a table bearing a parrot’s cage.

The two girls are shown in uncompromising poses - one strictly frontal, the other strictly from the side - and as they look very much alike, it seems likely that the painter wished to create a variation on a theme.

Eckersberg was the first painter who threw off conventional tones and the pseudo-classical landscape, in exchange for the clear atmosphere and natural outlines of Danish scenery. His landscapesare pure and true, while in his figure-pieces he is conventional.

In northern Europe, Denmark was the country that showed the most individual response to naturalism. Indeed, the first half of the nineteenth century is known as the “golden age” of Danish painting. There developed a particularly calm form of naturalism. the tendency started with the work of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg. After studying in Copenhagen under Nicolai Abildgaard, Eckersberg worked in David’s studio and then in Rome (1813-16). His contact with French classical landscape gave him experience of the plein-air sketch, which was to be vital for his understanding of landscape. Although himself an aspiring history painter, it was these sharply observed studies, with their intense sense of light, that are his greatest contribution.