Danish Paintings and Drawings

The David Collection has a group of fine paintings made by some of Denmark’s most important artists between c. 1750 and 1850. There are portraits by among others Vigilius Eriksen, who worked for a number of years at the court of Catherine the Great of Russia, and by Jens Juel, an artist who was exceedingly productive in Denmark.

One of the most important figures in the first half of the 19th century – the Golden Age of Danish art – was C.W. Eckersberg, both because of his paintings and drawings, and his work as a professor at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Eckersberg’s grand tour in the 1810s took him to both Paris and Rome and influenced his painting in a Neo-classical direction in terms of style and choice of subject matter.

For the next generation of Danish Golden Age painters, which included artists such as Christen Købke, P. C. Skovgaard and Johan Thomas Lundbye, national Danish motifs were to play a far more important role. And for the artist Martinus Rørbye who enjoyed travelling, trips to distant destinations such as Greece and Turkey provided great opportunities to find exotic subject matter.