Exhibited: The Nivaagaard Collection, “Venskabsportrætter fra Rom”, 2016, Cat. No. 17, mentioned p. 36, ill. p. 35.

Literature: Gertrud Oelsner & Ingeborg Bugge (ed.), “Thorald Brendstrup. I guldalderens skygge”, 2012, ill. p. 145.

Provenance: Circolo Scandinavo / Skandinavisk Forening i Rom (Inv. No. AI 29).

In 1826, at the age of 14, Brendstrup was admitted as a student at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and he made his debut at Charlottenborg in 1835. Initially, Brendstrup's landscape paintings were inspirered by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783–1853) and Christen Købke (1810–1848), but he later developed a more personal and romantic style.

In 1847, he received a large travel scholarship from the Academy and travelled for the first time to Italy, where he stayed for the following 3–4 years mainly in Rome and its surroundings. In Rome, Brendstrup, besides Lorenz Frølich, became close friends with the architect Laurits Albert Winstrup (1815–1889), whom Frølich also portrayed (see cat. no. 110), the painter Thorald Læssøe (1816–1878), as well as the married couple, the painter Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann (1819–1881) and the sculptor Jens Adolf Jerichau (1816–1883).