Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg

Painter (1783-1853)

“I was once to take something including a black bottle to a man in the town (…) By chance I became aware that the area was reflected in a reduced size in the bottle; I now saw here a painting of the surroundings, so beautiful, so perfect, so true. I often subsequently used this means, happy at this discovery.”
C.W. Eckersberg – from his memoirs

Eckersberg has been called “the father of Danish painting” because his qualities as a painter and teacher had such impact for the entire generation of Golden Age painters. In 1810 he left on a six-year period spent studying in Paris and Rome. During his stay abroad he painted a series of plein-air studies of nature that were later to have great significance for Danish art.

To Eckersberg, the detailed realism of his studies of nature was the ideal and truth of art. However, his advice to his pupils was that “everything defective should be ignored” so that the dream of perfection could be fulfilled. So a number of Eckersberg’s motifs can also be seen as the experience of a kind of poetic inspiration. This allowed him to remove less beautiful features so that the motifs emerge refined and idealised, but in such a way that the natural appearance of the presentation convinced the viewer that it was directly experienced by the painter.

More About C.W. Eckersberg

• The National Museum . Eckersberg in the exhibition Ånden i Naturen (The Spirit in Nature)   
• The Information Centre, Assistens Kirkegaard. Description of the painting M.L. Nathanson’s Eldest Daughters, Bella and Nanna. In Danish
• Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Library Database of Danish Golden Age paintings. In Danish
• Kunst Indeks Danmark. List of Eckersberg’s works
• Danish Museums On-line List of Eckersberg's works