One of the most significant painters of the Golden Age
“ – with the good Professor Eckersberg, all of us his children, on an excursion to Frederiksdal, and had a wonderful time. God be willing that I may experience many such knowledge-filled days, and always walk the path of truth, that I may become a good and useful person.”(Journal entry, 27 May 1842)
Christen Købke was one of the most significant painters of the Golden Age. He started at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1822 at the tender age of 12 and was first taught by the painter C.A. Lorentzen and, following his death in 1828, by C.W. Eckersberg, who had a great influence on him. He painted portraits, landscapes and architectural paintings. Købke was particularly taken with his immediate surroundings, and thus preferred to paint close to home, where he could study the things familiar and near to him rather than the distant. He painted a large number of light-filled and colourful small sections of everyday life, architecture and nature in Copenhagen and the surrounding area, and it is these studies and prospects which he has since become known for. He found many of his motifs at Kastellet (The Citadel) in Copenhagen, where he lived with his family, and later at Blegdammen outside the ramparts, where the family moved to in the early 1830s. Købke also painted several intimate portraits of his family and close circle of friends.
Following the advice of art historian N.L. Høyen to focus among other things on important historical national monuments, he also began painting monuments such as Frederiksborg Castle, which he depicted several times in both small studies and larger compositions with unconventional points of view.
From 1838–40, Købke stayed in Italy, where, in addition to Rome, he visited Naples, Pompeii and Capri. Here, he painted copies of ancient frescoes, architectural studies as well as numerous studies and paintings of the southern Italian landscape. On his return to Denmark, he once again threw himself into motifs from his immediate surroundings, while continuing to work on his studies from Italy. Among other things, he worked on a monumental painting of the coast of Capri, which was supposed to be his piece for membership of the Art Academy, but it was rejected, bruising his artistic confidence and commitment in the latter years of his life. When Købke died of pneumonia in 1848, aged 37, he had not yet achieved official recognition as an artist, but great focus has since been placed on him and the originality of his works. His works have been shown at exhibitions around the world, and Købke is today considered to be one of the most important, most original and internationally recognised Danish Golden Age artists.
