Christen Købke. 1810-48.
Oil on canvas.
Height: 25,5 cm; Width: 18,5 cm without frame.
In a very well-preserved Empire room in the David Collection it is possible to see examples of contemporary furniture side by side with paintings of the period in Danish art history know as "the Golden Age". One of the pictures is by Christen Købke whose short but artistically fruitful life covered the same period as the Golden Age.
At the beginning of the 1830s when Købke, a Copenhagener, lived with a sister and brother-in-law in Hillerød, north of Copenhagen, he painted a number of pictures of Frederiksborg Castle. Of great importance to him was his association with the art historian Niels Lauritz Høyen (1798-1870), who at this time was cataloguing the Castle's portrait collection. Høyen's active interest in Danish history and the country's medieval and Renaissance architecture had a strong influence on Købke and on a number of younger artists of the day.
The confident composition, the modelling of the spires in light and shadow and the representation of the contours of the landscape softly dissolved in the bright sunlight bear witness to influence from his teacher, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckerberg (1783-1853).
The synthesis of Eckersberg's naturalism and interest in perspective in conjunction with Høyen's delight in the Danish countryside and national culture have resulted here in great art - despite the modesty of the format.