Adam Müller started as a student at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1821.

The only sentence C. W. Eckersberg writes in his diary on 27 September 1825 is (in Danish): “Young Adam Möller began to draw,” and from this day on and up to 1836 Müller is a student of Eckersberg. Müller becomes one of Eckersberg's favourite students, and the teacher has very affectionate feelings for the young painter and at Müller's all to early death, Eckersberg writes in his diary on 21 March 1844 (in Danish): “At 9 o'clock this morning, the body of my deceased and beloved Adam Möller was brought to the grave at Assistens Cemetery ....”

Drawing based on plaster casts of classical sculptures was a significant part of the classes at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. By copying antiquity and the great masters, the artists of the time acquired the ideals, poses and stories that were seen as necessary knowledge and abilities for the young artists.

Exhibited: Kunstforeningen, “De ukendte guldaldermalere”, 1982, no. 112.

Literature: Jan Zahle, “Antiksalen - Figursalen - Museet”, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi and others “Spejlinger i Gips”, 2004, cat. no. 05a, mentioned and reproduced p. 103–106. Zahle gives a detailed description of the painting’s composition and the various casts that are depicted, such as the three figures from the Temple of Aphaia on Aegina near the wall in the back through the double door in the dark backroom. The figures were restored by Thorvaldsen in Rome 1818–19. The passageway in the middle is sharply illuminated through two windows on the right, while a custodian stands idly by. The walls are covered with reliefs and statuettes, and above the door in front of the backroom hangs H. W. Bissen's relief “Hector’s Body Surrounded by His Mourning Family” from 1826–27. The room in the foreground is also dark – to the right is Isis from Capitol and Jupiter Otricoli and on the left a stool with a tall hat. A drawing board with a drawing of Isis leans against the stool. “The image is distinctive with the great contrast between the highly illuminated passageway in the middle, the dark foreground and the relatively dim light in the background” (p.106).

Provenance: High Commissioner of War, Councillor and auction director Johan Christian Fick (1788–1864). The Danish art collector Benjamin Wolff (1790–1866), his descendants until today.

This painting was disposed of by lottery at Kunstforeningen (The Danish Art Society) on 4 November 1830, where it was won by High Commissioner of War Johan Christian Fick. Fick was also an auctioneer, councillor and art collector, and in 1825 he founded Kunstforeningen in Copenhagen in collaboration with, among others, the art historian N. L. Høyen, the architect G. F. Hetsch and the painters C. W. Eckersberg and I. P. Møller.

Fick was a very good friend of his brother-in-law, the art collector Benjamin Wolff. Benjamin Wolff established his fortune as a merchant in Calcutta from 1817–1828. Back in Denmark, he bought the Engelholm Manor in 1830 and later Grevensvænge near Mogenstrup. He was married to Juliane Lovise Sneedorff in 1832.

Cf. cat. no. 4, which is the artist's own drawing made to Kunstforeningen after this painting.