Danish Friendship Portraits From Rome
Circolo Scandinavo's exceptional collection of drawn friendship portraits from Rome from the 19th century is coming up for Liveauction at Bruun Rasmussen 10 June 2024. The collection consists of more than seventy portraits and extends seven decades of art history – from the Danish Golden Age in the first half of the 19th century to the Naturalism and Modern Breakthrough of the late 19th century.
In the first half of the 19th century, Rome held the position as the absolute center of the European art world. Here the German painters had formed a small community of artists around 1812, and shaped by their homeland's romantic notions of friendship, loyalty, and artistic exchange, they formed the group of artists known today as the Nazarenes, which became a great source of inspiration for many of the Danish artists who came to Rome. The many artist colonies that arose around Europe during the 19th century reflected the importance of an intimate community of artists formed outside the academies.
The Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) had lived in Rome since 1797 and stood as a link between the Nordic and German artists in the first half of the 19th century. He was president of the German Ponte-Molle Society from 1813. Its purpose, among other things, was to receive newly arrived artists from Northern Europe and initiate them into the artistic community through a series of cheerful and informal ceremonies. In this way, the visiting Nordic artists experienced emphasis on the friendship and community that prevailed among the German artists.
Circolo Scandinavo per Artisti e Scienziati
Influenced by the ideals of the German Romantics and chaired by Bertel Thovaldsen, "De Danskes Bogsamling i Rom" was founded on King Frederik VI's birthday on 28 January 1833. For decades this “library” and the local Caffé Greco served as a social and cultural “embassy” for the Danish artists staying in Rome - their first point of contact upon arrival, where they received their mail, read newspapers from home, and socialized with old and new friends. In the middle of the 19th century there were three such Nordic libraries in Rome - the Danish, the Swedish and the Norwegian. They were united in 1860 as Skandinavisk Forening (Circolo Scandinavo per Artisti e Scienziati). Finnish and Icelandic artists eventually received membership in the association. The members were not only many of the period's prominent artists but also poets, scholars, arthistorians and composers. Circolo Scandinavo has been an artist residency since the 1960s.
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Friendship Portraits
The German artists drew and exchanged self-portraits and portraits of each other. These portraits, Freundschaftsbilder, were a testimony to the special camaraderie that arose between the artists during the first decades of the 19th century – a unity and a human empathy that also became important elements among the Danish artists. Skandinavisk Forening's remarkable collection of friendship portraits consists of more than seventy portraits and extends seven decades of art history – including familiar names of the Danish Golden Age like Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), Johan Thomas Lundbye (1818-1848), Vilhelm Marstrand (1819-1873), Ernst Meyer (1797-1861) and Lorenz Frølich (1820-1908). From the Scandinavianism of the 1860s towards the Modern Breakthrough of the 1880s we discover Carl Bloch (1834-1890) portraying Swedes culminating in the virtuous Norwegian and Danish draughtsmen Eilif Peterssen (1852-1928) and P.S. Krøyer (1851-1909) depicting each other.
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For further information, please contact
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Julie Arendse VossJulie Arendse VossHead of department / 19th Century & Old Master Paintings / København |
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Kristine VindahlKristine VindahlSpecialist / 19th Century & Old Master Paintings / København |