ESCENA CON ESCENARIO || Christa Zaat

Christa Zaat





Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (Danish painter) 1783 - 1853
The Russian Ship of the Line Asow and a Frigate at Anchor near Elsinore, 1828
oil on canvas
63 x 51 cm. (24.8 x 20.08 in.)
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark

Catalogue Note Statens Museum for Kunst
Eckersberg’s most monumental marine painting. It was prompted by his observations of the Russian ship of the line ‘Hanhuth’ and the frigate ‘Provorenoy’ at Copenhagen in July 1828. Even though the title states that painting depicts the Russian ship of the line ‘Asow’, which had been at anchor outside Copenhagen the previous year. Two years earlier, on 10 September 1826, Eckersberg had observed and painted similar Russian ships outside of Elsinore. The painting is, then, a reconstruction or reinterpretation of Eckersberg’s observations of the Russian fleet over the course of a few years. While referring to designs borrowed from the navy, Eckersberg has carefully identified the scene and accounted for every detail in a composition sketch.

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Eckersberg was born in Blåkrog in the Duchy of Schleswig (now the southern part of Jutland in Denmark), to Henrik Vilhelm Eckersberg, painter and carpenter, and Ingeborg Nielsdatter.
After being trained in Copenhagen and studying in Paris (1810-13) under Jacques-Louis David, he continued his studies in Rome (1814), where he executed a masterly portrait of his friend Thorvaldsen (Royal Academy, Copenhagen, 1815). Returning to Copenhagen in 1816, he occupied himself mainly with portraits, minutely rendering the features of his models with a Neoclassic feeling for c1arity and purity of line. He also painted many landscapes, however (as he had done in Rome), and as an influential teacher at the Copenhagen Academy (from 1818) he introduced painting from nature into the curriculum. He also executed some religious themes and subjects from Danish history in Christiansborg Palace.

His pupils included Johan Christian Dahl and Christen Købke. He has been called 'the father of Danish painting' because of the influence he exerted on Danish painters in the second quarter of the 19th century. With Christen Købke he was the leading painter of the Danish 'Golden Age' (c. 1800-1850).
He is referred to as the Father of Danish painting.