SØDRING, Frederik Hansen - b. 1809 Aalborg, d. 1862 Hellerup

Danish landscape painter. He spent some time living in Norway with his parents before studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen beginning in 1825. There he initially studied under Jens Peter Møller (1783-1854), but his greatest influence was from Johan Christian Dahl. For his debut at Charlottenborg in 1828 Sødring presented two copies after Dahl, and in the years that followed the Norwegian painter’s views on art and artistic principles came to be of crucial importance to Sødring’s own work.

Between 1829 and 1831 he traveled to Norway and Germany, taking time to study in Munich. Upon his return, he exhibited landscapes from the Rhine, Southern Germany, and Tyrol. In 1832, he was painted by Christen Købke; the portrait is now part of the Hirschsprung Collection.

In 1842 Sødring wed Henriette Marie de Bang (1809-1855) who belonged to a rich landowner family in Nastved. With the marriage he received a sizable dowry. He established a scholarship, to be awarded at the annual Charlottenborg Exhibition, and provided funds to support elderly landscape artists and widows of such painters.

Sødring was among the few Danish artists of his period who looked towards the Dresden school of Romantic landscape painting from the very outset.

"The "Summer Spire" on the Chalk Cliffs of the Island Møn. Moonlight"

Møn is an island in south-eastern Denmark. It is one of Denmark’s most popular destinations for tourists with its white chalk cliffs,

Sødring was among the few Danish artists of his period to look to Romantic landscape painting for inspiration, and this painting is radically different from the majority of paintings created in Denmark around 1830, first and foremost because it is a nocturnal scene, but also because of the way in which the motif has been treated. The artist has chosen to view the Summer Spire against a dramatic night sky where the moon breaks through the clouds and makes the chalk cliffs appear luminously white against the dark surroundings.

Besides the influence of the Norwegian painter Johan Christian Dahl, at an early stage Sødring became interested in the German landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich’s work and artistic devices. Several features of the Summer Spire scene are very reminiscent of the paintings by the German artist.