C. W. Eckersberg: Udsigt mod Syd fra Helsingørs Rhed. Signed and dated E. 1830. Oil on canvas. 56×87 cm. Estimate: DKK 2.000.000-3.000.000.

The Danish Golden Age 1801-1864 – World-class art in a time of crisis

With the Live Auction and Online Auction entitled “The Danish Golden Age 1801–1864 – World-class art in a time of crisis”, we’ll be marking a pivotal period in Danish art history, when the intellectual and cultural scenes were flourishing despite the country’s major political and economic crises.

At the Live Auction on 2 December at 4 pm at Nørgaardsvej 3 in Lyngby and the subsequent Online Auction on 9 December at bruun-rasmussen.dk, we’ll be embarking on a journey back to the first half of the 19th century with a rich selection of masterful paintings and drawings by all the Golden Age artists.

Before going under the hammer, the works will be exhibited at a preview in Lyngby, which is also an opportunity for you to learn more about the Golden Age when Jesper Svenningsen, MA and PhD in Art History, gives the preview’s opening talk “The Golden Age of Danish painting – new perspectives” on 28 November at 4 pm. Everyone is welcome!

The Golden Age as a period

The Golden Age as a concept is not particularly Danish. It is often used to refer to a period in a nation’s history when artists, writers and scientists worked together to create something regarded as epoch-making by posterity. The Danish Golden Age refers to a period in the first half of the 19th century, when culture and science were flourishing, headed by famous names such as the fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen, the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, the scientist H.C. Ørsted, the ballet master August Bournonville and the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, to name but a few.

Most people in the art world today agree that the Danish Golden Age was one of the most important periods in 19th-century European art. Here, world-class art was created by a number of artists with a broad vision, educated at the internationally recognised Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. The period gave rise to prominent names such as C.W. Eckersberg, Christen Købke, Martinus Rørbye, Johan Thomas Lundbye, Wilhelm Marstrand, Constantin Hansen and P.C. Skovgaard. On the two upcoming themed auctions, art works by all these artists can be found.

Ditlev Blunck: Self-portrait, 46 years old. Signed and dated Blunck Wien 1844. Oil on canvas laid on cardboard. 22×19 cm. Estimate: DKK 150,000-200,000.

C. A. Jensen: Portrait of the countess Frederikke Marie Danneskiold Samsøe. Signed and dated. Oil on canvas. 24×19.5 cm. Estimate: DKK 25,000-30,000.

A country in crisis and the rebuilding of a national identity

The Golden Age unfolded in the first six decades of the 19th century, which was anything but a harmonious time. The period was characterised by a string of major political catastrophes. In 1801, England forced Denmark out of neutrality with the Battle of Copenhagen, bombing Copenhagen and taking over the Danish fleet in 1807. In 1813, Denmark went bankrupt, and in 1814, the country was forced to cede Norway. The end of the Golden Age is marked by the war in 1864, when Denmark suffered a catastrophic defeat against Prussia, leading to the loss of yet another sizeable part of the country's territory, including the duchies of Holstein, Schleswig and Lauenborg. Following this, the views of the world and art of the Golden Age had to make way for new ideas.

In the space of next to no time, Denmark went from being a central power in Europe to being a small, diminished country as a consequence of these numerous social crises, creating the need to rebuild the national identity. The world of art played an instrumental role in this, and some of the most important works in Danish art history were created. Artists had an immense wanderlust, and as part of their education, they travelled to Southern Europe and Rome – the melting pot of art – where they studied the cultural treasures of antiquity and were inspired by the sun-drenched landscapes.

Wilhelm Marstrand: View from a window in C.W. Eckersberg's studio in a wing of Charlottenborg. C. 1829. Oil on canvas. 31 × 23 cm. Estimate: DKK 600,000-800,000.

Martinus Rørbye: “Tre fiskere i måneskin”. Three fishermen in moonlight. Ca. 1828. Oil on canvas laid on canvas. 19×15 cm. Estimate: DKK 100,000-150,000.

Martinus Rørbye: “Pergola ved kapucinerklostret i Amalfi”. A pergola with vine leaves and bunches of grapes and a view of Amalfi. Unsigned. Dated Amalfi 1835. Oil on paper laid on cardboard. 35×50 cm. Estimate: DKK 800,000-1.000.000.

Constantin Hansen: “Kirken S. Pietro i Citta Segni”. Church of Saint Peter in Segni, Italy. 1836. Oil on paper laid on canvas. 25×36 cm. Estimate: DKK 40,000-60,000.

Wanderlust, range of motifs and plein-air painting

Many of the motifs of the Golden Age originate from the artists’ travels to Italy, but the Danish landscape, portraits, the city, everyday life and nude models also found their way into their works. With the long coastline in Denmark, the sea also became a pervasive motif, and many artists employed an almost scientific approach to the way they studied and reproduced the refraction of light in the waves, the nature of the ships, the importance of the wind to the sails and the expression of the sky under different weather conditions. It was also during the Golden Age that plein-air painting was introduced into Danish art. Armed with their sketchpads and paint boxes, the artists headed outside to get right up close to the subject and reproduce the moment.

Johan Thomas Lundbye: “Møllebakken ved Kallundborg”. The Mill hill at Kalundborg. Oil on canvas. 37×55 cm. Estimate: DKK 600,000-800,000.

I. L. Jensen: Hot Cakes Purple Stock. Oil on cardboard. 20×14 cm. Estimate: DKK 25,000-30,000.

World-class art

That this is world-class art is unquestionable. We’re finding that Danish Golden Age art is in demand like never before on the auction market. A great many private collectors and the world’s leading museums including the Louvre in Paris, the National Gallery in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have acquired Golden Age works at our auctions in recent years. There has also been significant international focus on the period thanks to the exhibitions “Beyond the light: Identity and place in nineteenth-century Danish art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Paul J. Getty Museum in Los Angeles in 2023, and “Danish Golden Age – World-class art between disasters” at the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen, Petit Palais in Paris and Nationalmuseum – Sweden’s Museum of Art and Design in Stockholm in 2019/2020.

Live Auction

Danish golden age

Monday 2 December

View the entire selection

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg

The fact that Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg has been called the “father of Danish painting” testifies to his enormous importance to Danish art history – and to the Danish Golden Age in particular. He became a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1818, and during the 35 years that he held the position, virtually all Danish artists were influenced by him. His students include some of the most significant Danish Golden Age painters such as Christen Købke, Martinus Rørbye, Constantin Hansen and Wilhelm Marstrand.

Martinus Rørbye

Martinus Rørbye was born in Drammen, Norway. He started at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1820 as a student of C.A. Lorentzen and was later tutored by C.W. Eckersberg. In his young years as an artist, Rørbye was particularly interested in depictions of everyday life on the streets of Copenhagen. His works from that time often have an allegorical and moralising content, based on meticulous studies and first-hand observations of life on the streets.

Constantin Hansen

Constantin Hansen began his education with his father, the portrait painter Hans Hansen. Under his influence, he took an early interest in portrait painting in the tradition of Jens Juel, who was his father’s great role model. In 1816, Constantin Hansen started at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, switching to the Academy’s Schools of Visual Arts in 1825. In 1829, he became a student of C.W. Eckersberg. Under Eckersberg’s influence, Constantin Hansen developed a keen interest in architectural painting, and when he received a travel grant in 1835, he headed to Italy and Rome to study the ancient buildings in particular.

Wilhelm Marstrand

Marstrand studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 1825-1833, where he was a student of C.W. Eckersberg, among others. In his early years, he mainly painted genre paintings and scenes from everyday life in Copenhagen, but he also painted many portraits of his family and circle of friends as well as commissions for the Copenhagen bourgeoisie.

Christen Købke

Christen Købke began studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1822 at the tender age of 12 and was first taught by the painter C.A. Lorentzen and, following his death in 1828, by C.W. Eckersberg, who had a great influence on him. He painted portraits, landscapes and architectural paintings. Købke was particularly taken with his immediate surroundings, and thus preferred to paint close to home, where he could study the things familiar and near to him rather than the distant.

Peter Christian Skovgaard

Peter Christian Skovgaard had a feel for and could reproduce the magnificence and idyllic beauty of Danish nature like few others. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 1831–45, where he was a student of the landscape painter J.L. Lund. While at the Academy, he also improved his skills by studying classical European landscape art at museums and collections in Copenhagen. He also participated in the excursions that C.W. Eckersberg undertook with his students in Copenhagen and the surrounding area to paint nature studies in the open air.

Johan Thomas Lundbye

Johan Thomas Lundbye specialised in landscape painting, and he followed the national romantic line, defined by the art historian N.L. Høyen, among others, who wanted to use art to rebuild a national identity and patriotism at a time when Denmark had suffered major defeats. Lundbye was also a highly skilled animal painter, known for his very detailed and precise close-up studies of animals, especially cows.