Literature: Margit Bendtsen, Sketches and Mesasurings, Danish Architects in Greece 1818–1862, 1993, mentioned p. 73, ill. p. 117. Ida Haugsted, Dream and Reality. Danish Antiquaries, Architects and Artists in Greece, 1996, mentioned p.73 (note 31), ill. p. 25.

Provenance: The Danish Architect Jørgen Hansen Koch (1787–1860)

The Danish Architect Jørgen Hansen Koch (1787–1860) was awarded the gold medal from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen 1816. He applied for the travel scholarship, planning a journey of three years. The Academy Council instructed him to visit Italy and Rome to study the ancient architecture, and on his return to improve his knowledge of architecture by studying in Paris. It was his intention to visit these countries only, but he was destined to be the first Danish architect to visit Greece, where he spent five months in 1818–19. At Café Greco in the circle of the German art historian and salonniére Caroline von Humboldt (1766–1829), Jørgen Hansen Koch met the three German architects, Heinrich Hübsch (1795–1863), Frantz Heger (1792–1836) and Joseph Thürmer (1789–1833). Thürmer had been a pupil of Karl von Fischer (1782–1820) at the Königlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste in München. In 1817 he received the großen Akademiepreis which enabled him to study architecture in Italy and Greece for almost ten years. After his return to Rome 1819, Thürmer worked on his drawn studies from Athens. Some of these were etched and published 1823–25 in Ansichten von Athen und seine Denkmalen. Nach der Natur gezeichnet und radiert – romantic views of the temples and landscapes of Attica, among these a view of Olympieion seen from another viewpoint. The plates were accompanied by a text by the Danish archaeologist P.O. Brøndsted (1780–1842). A copy of the French edition, Vues d'Athènes et de ses Monumens dessinées et gravées d'après Nature par Ioseph Thürmer Architecte was presented to Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844) and is now in the library of the Thorvaldsen Museum, (Inv. 1063–0) At least three known Thürmer drawings from the four architect’s stay in Athens 1818–1819, are recorded in Danish collections; The Erechteion (National Museum of Denmark), The Herodes Atticus Odeion (Private Collection) and The Olympieion – presented to Joseph Thürmer’s fellow architect and travel companion Jørgen Hansen Koch.