The 1820s saw an enormous expansion of artistic activities in Denmark. Artists turned their attention from timeless, idealised art to their own times and the reality in which they lived. One of the first steps was taken by C.W. Eckersberg, who during visits to Rome began to paint on the basis of meticulous studies of nature. It was a principle for Eckersberg and the entire generation he came to influence in his capacity of professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts that ”everything wanting in perfection should be left out of consideration”. The aim was a character close to reality, but without the love of detail developing into realism.
The choice of motif was closely related to the economic crisis that Denmark was undergoing at the time. The reduced circumstances were reflected in the painters’ preoccupation with the familiar, the near to hand and the modest. This did not, however, mean that Danish artists did not travel abroad. Many of them were fascinated with the light and everyday life of Italy, while others concentrated on Danish national subjects.
The Danish and German sympathisers in Schleswig and Holstein were in conflict with each other, and landscape painting in particular was introduced as an element in the national struggle. The artists emphasised the general and typical elements in the Danish landscape. The nationalist programme won out but resulted in artistic isolation, helping to put an end to the Golden Age. It deprived Danish art of the vital contact with the art of other countries.
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