Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783–1853)

A Danish painter of historical and genre subjects, sea-pieces, architecture, and portraits, Eckersberg was born at Blaakrog, Varnas, in South Jutland. He studied first in Aabenraa and in Flensburg, and in 1803 entered the Academy at Copenhagen, where he won the gold medal in 1809 with his Death of Jacob. In the following year he went to Paris and entered David's studio, and in 1813, he visited Rome. He remained abroad until 1817, and experienced a complete transformation of his ideas, in the course of which his artistic personality finally emerged in crystalline clarity. Despite a superficial sympathy for the classicism of his time, with which he came in close contact first while a pupil of David when he was in friendly association with Thorvaldsen in Rome, his character as an artist formed itself round his faculty for the reproduction of external nature, which he owed to his extraordinary skill of observation. This fixity of vision was so intense that it amounted almost to genius. His Danish character is brought out in his portraits, for which he received many commissions, yet he was still able to dedicate much time to seascapes. From the 1820s, he had developed a passion for the sea, and in particular ships. He was interested in mechanics and construction, and in shipping he found a wide field for this interest. In 1817, he had become a member of the Academy in Copenhagen, to which he presented The Death of Balder. In the following year he became one of its professors, and devoted much care, with great success, to the improvement of the talents of rising artists. In 1827, he was made Director of the Academy. Between the years 1818 and 1828, he executed a series of historical pictures relating to the House of Oldenburg in the palace of Christiansborg. Dubbed 'the father of Danish painting', Eckersberg was the most successful Danish painter in the first half of the 19th century, and the most influential. He died at Copenhagen.

Art