Exhibited: Kunsthalle zu Kiel, “Die Kopenhager Schule. Meisterwerke Dänischer und Deutscher Malerei von 1770 bis 1850”, 2005, reproduced p. 139.

Hamburger Kunsthalle, “Eckersberg - Faszination Wirklichkeit: das Goldene Zeitalter der dänischen Malerei”, 2016, no. 86.

Fondation Custodia, “C. W. Eckersberg 1783–1853. Artistes Danois à Paris, Rome & Copenhague”, 2016, cat. no. 119, reproduced p. 318.

Literature: Peter Michael Hornung & Kasper Monrad, “C. W. Eckersberg - dansk malerkunsts fader”, 2005, mentioned p. 388–389 and reproduced p. 388.

“C. W. Eckersbergs dagbøger 1810–1837”, published and commented by Villads Villadsen, 2009, mentioned p. 1215.

Provenance: The estate auction of C. W. Eckersberg, 1855 no. 535, under 'Tegninger af Professor Eckersberg 1848–51' (Drawings by Professor Eckersberg 1848–51), described as 'En gadescene, tusch' (Street scene, drawing ink).

Kunsthallen auction 442, 1994 no. 171, reproduced p. 53.

On 28 July 1851, a total solar eclipse could be observed in Denmark. An extremely rare event (the next one will not take place until 23 May 2142), which therefore attracted enormous attention among the general population.

Eckersberg writes in his diary on the day in question, Monday 28 July 1851: “At about 3 o'clock a solar eclipse began, which was almost total at 4 o'clock and then disappeared again at about 5 o'clock. There were many people in the square with their glasses to see this rare act of nature. When the eclipse began, the lighting immediately dimmed, and when the eclipse peaked for about 4 minutes, it was twilight all around, and the blue sky, the clouds, and all other objects took on a peculiar dim grey colour, and silence reigned everywhere. Even though clouds were drifting around, you could still make out the eclipse between them.”

The present drawing is one of the very rare depictions of what the event looked like. An eyewitness account made by one of the greatest artists of the day.

An interesting and rare astronomical phenomenon as a total solar eclipse will, of course, in itself interest a science-devoted and careful weather-recording artist such as Eckersberg, but as is so typical of the painter in his genre depictions of small everyday situations, it is not the solar eclipse itself that he draws – no, he depicts the 'acts' around the event. What ordinary Copenhagen citizens – men and women, children, young and old, tall and short – looked like, the moment they gazed up at the actual eclipse through the dark-coloured protective glasses made specially for the occasion. What they are looking at is something outside the frame – exactly the same approach as we see in works such as “Langebro i måneskin med løbende figurer” (Langebro in moonlight with running figures) from 1836 (National Gallery of Denmark, inv. no. KMS7284) or "Udsigt gennem en Dør til løbende Figurer” (View through a door to running figures) from 1845 (National Gallery of Denmark, inv. no. KMS8847) acquired at a Bruun Rasmussen auction.

But the drawing may not only give us a very interesting and entertaining insight into what the scene looked like as ordinary Copenhageners watched the solar eclipse. It might also provide us with an insight into Eckersberg's own situation. He had become an older gentleman, and his eyesight was no longer very good. “Presumably Eckersberg had developed cataracts in both eyes. His drawing of the reaction of a crowd of citizens to the total solar eclipse that took place in Copenhagen in the summer of 1851 also became a comment on his own situation, where the daylight was gradually fading.” (Hornung and Monrad, p. 389).