C.W. Eckersberg (1783–1853)
Elisabeth Ida Mariane Brockenhuus, 1817
Oil on canvas

C.W. Eckersberg has created a half-length portrait of a young noblewoman in a white empire-style dress with a red, floral shawl draped over her left shoulder. The young woman looks out at the observer with an expression of calm serenity mingled with a slight tinge of timidity. The woman is Elisabeth Ida Mariane Brockenhuus (1798–1827), who would have been about 19 years old when Eckersberg painted her portrait. At the time, she was engaged to assessor Frederik von Lowzow (6b/1985), whom she married later that year. Elisabeth Ida Mariane Brockenhuus was his second wife, and together they had four children before her death, aged just 29, in 1827.

Eckersberg completed the portrait in June 1817, and later that month he repeated both portraits.¹ The following month, he was commissioned to paint four large scenes from the history of the Danish kings for the Throne Room at the new Christiansborg Palace, which at the time was under construction under the supervision of architect C.F. Hansen. Eckersberg completed the last of the four works in 1828. Five years later he was commissioned to create a new series of works for Christiansborg Palace. These were to show the institution of the Order of the Elephant, the establishment of the country militia (peasant army), the inauguration of the navy dock and the abolition of stavnsbåndet. The David Collection owns a preliminary work for the latter (B 292).