Reproducing the magnificence and idyllic beauty of Danish nature
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“[…] inside the forest, there are lovely large trees, which both stand singly, gather in dense groups, and closely connected masses […],it is especially lovely in the afternoon, there is also fine green grass carpeting the forest floor, soon masses of raspberries, ferns and willowherbs in bloom, and finally lovely light young forest; this is more than can be painted, so it matters not if (other) countries have even more scenic nature.” (Letter to Orla Lehmann, 1853) Peter Christian Skovgaard was one of the most important national romantic painters of the Golden Age. He had a feel for and could reproduce the magnificence and idyllic beauty of Danish nature like few others. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 1831–45, where he was a student of the landscape painter J.L. Lund. While at the Academy, he also improved his skills by studying classical European landscape art at museums and collections in Copenhagen. He also participated in the excursions that C.W. Eckersberg undertook with his students in Copenhagen and the surrounding area to paint nature studies in the open air. Skovgaard specialised as a landscape painter and was greatly inspired by the literature of his day and the art historian N.L. Høyen to follow the national romantic line. He painted the Danish landscape in harmonious and idealised pictures that capture and bring together the essence of what is particularly Danish. He often found his motifs in the nature of Zealand, which he depicted with great detail in various seasons and weather in both small oil sketches and monumental and more dramatic compositions. He was particularly enamoured with the Danish beech forest as a motif. Another favourite motif was the natural phenomenon Møns Klint, which he visited and depicted several times in the 1840s and 1850s. During his time at the Academy, Skovgaard became close friends with the painters Dankvart Dreyer, Lorenz Frølich and J.Th. Lundbye – his friendship with Lundbye being especially important to him. They often worked together, supported each other and went on painting excursions together. Skovgaard also travelled abroad to Italy in 1854–55, and England and France in 1862, where he was inspired by the French and English landscape art of the day to create more dramatic and grandiose works. In 1851, he married Georgia Schouw. Together they had three children: Susette Skovgaard (married Holten), Joakim Skovgaard and Niels Skovgaard, all of whom became artists. The Skovgaard Museum in Viborg is dedicated to the art of the Skovgaard family. By the time of his death, Skovgaard had become one of the most recognised and in-demand artists of his time. |