Landscapes in Danish painting

The landscape painting in Danish art is a genre with as many faces as the landscape itself. Throughout the ages, artists have found their motifs in the original, "pristine" landscape, in the forest, the vast farmlands and not least the Danish coastal landscape – from dramatic depictions of Møen's Cliff to views of gentle, sunny beaches.

Jens Juel (1745-1802) was the first to painter who truly depicted the Danish landscape, partly based on direct studies of nature. In the age of Juel, landscape painting was not a question of an exact reproduction of a specific landscape, but of creating spiritual and moving renditions of nature. The auction includes several works by Juel, e.g. the painting "Landscape, Peasant's Cottage by a Road, In the Background Grain Fields, Striking Sun Effect, Painted 1800".

It was C.W. Eckersberg (1783-1853), however, and especially his pupils and successors such as Christen Købke (1810-1848), Dankvart Dreyer (1816-1852), P.C. Skovgaard (1817-1875) and J.Th. Lundbye (1818-1848), who really brought Danish landscape painting forward. This development was partly due to the fact that contemporary authors such as Adam Oehlenschläger (1779-1850) and N.F.S. Grundtvig (1783-1872), and their leading role in romanticist thinking and the pronounced worship of the national, had great influence on the visual arts. In this period painters were also influenced by the art historian N.L. Høyen (1798-1870) who, as professor at The Royal Academy of Fine Art, encouraged his students to use Danish landscapes as motif.

Artists would go forth into nature with their drawing paper and their paint box in order to depict the ideal and graceful Danish landscape. Most famous and well-documented in this respect is J.Th. Lundbye's and P.C. Skovgaard's summer trip to Vejby in the Northern part of Zealand in 1843. On this trip every single light effect was carefully recorded in the sketchbook, and no detail was too insignificant to be submitted to close scrutiny by the artist. Auction No. 770 offers a truly top-class landscape by P.C. Skovgaard entitled "The Cows Are Milked in the Grass under the Old Beech Trees".

The tradition established by the landscape painters of this golden age since came to serve as a starting point for one of the most significant currents in Danish painting. Internationally, the tall sky, the wide horizons and the light in the country where the sea is always close by, has become synonymous with Danish painting. In this regard, the Skagen painters and the Funen painters are, of course, entirely crucial. We are pleased to be able to present a fine selection of landscapes by these Danish artists at Auction No. 770.

Also included in this auction is a wonderful little landscape by Vilhelm Hammershøi from the early 1880s – a former possession of Helen Schou, the sculptor.

As our preparations for Auction No. 770 progresses, photos and further information will gradually be added here.

Deadline for consignments: February 23

Preview: April 11 - 16

Auction: April 17 - 27