J. L. Lund
Encyclopedia
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
painter, was born in Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
, Duchy of Holstein
Holstein
Holstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....
, to master painter Hans Giewert Lund and his wife Maria Magdalena Christina Bremer. An adherent of romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, he is known for his history painting
History painting
History painting is a genre in painting defined by subject matter rather than an artistic style, depicting a moment in a narrative story, rather than a static subject such as a portrait...
s.
Training as an artist
He came to Copenhagen to train as an artist, and in 1797 at the age of 22 he started his studies at the Royal Danish Academy of ArtRoyal Danish Academy of Art
The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts has provided a practice-oriented complement to the scholarly investigation of the arts carried out at Danish universities for more than 250 years, playing a crucial part in the development of the distinctive tradition of the art of Denmark.- History :The Royal...
(Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi) with the support of Johan Frederik Clemens
Johan Frederik Clemens
Johan Frederik Clemens , Danish printmaker in etching, was born in Gollnow near Stettin in Pomerania, to a poor Saxon weaver, Johan David Clemens, and his wife Anna Francken...
, acclaimed royal engraver and influential member of the Academy. He came quickly into contact with the rich and powerful of that time, which had a decided influence on his artistic development. He studied under neoclassicist
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard
Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard
Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard , Danish artist, was born in Copenhagen, the son of Søren Abildgaard, an antiquarian draughtsman of repute, and Anne Margrethe Bastholm.- Training as an artist :...
at the Academy from 1797-1799, and taught drawing privately during his student years. He received the Academy’s small silver medallion in 1798 and the large silver medallion in 1799, but never competed for the gold medallion.
Student travels
He was friends with Caspar David FriedrichCaspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning...
, another student at the Academy and likeminded fellow-romanticist, and traveled with him to Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, Germany in 1799 to continue his studies at the Dresden Academy. From there he went on to Paris, where he studied under Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...
from 16 September 1800 to April 1802. During this time he also took excursions to Switzerland and Lake Maggiore (August-October 1801).
He went on to Italy in 1802, first to Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
and then to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, where he lived from 1802-1810. In Florence he was deeply affected by the religious art prior to Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
’s time. He was part of the expatriate colony of Danish and German artists and scientists in Italy, which included Frederikke Brun, Charlotte Humboldt, Georg Zoëga and Bertel Thorvaldsen
Bertel Thorvaldsen
Bertel Thorvaldsen was a Danish-Icelandic sculptor of international fame, who spent most of his life in Italy . Thorvaldsen was born in Copenhagen into a Danish/Icelandic family of humble means, and was accepted to the Royal Academy of Arts when he was eleven years old...
. Cultured, talented and sociable, he secured himself many important contacts during this time, including those within the Danish royal house.
During the years 1804-1807 he received stipends from the Academy, inclusive a travel allowance to support his stay in Italy between 1804-1806.
During that time, and also years later during a subsequent stay in Rome, he associated himself with the German painters known as the Nazarenes
Nazarene movement
The name Nazarene was adopted by a group of early 19th century German Romantic painters who aimed to revive honesty and spirituality in Christian art...
, a group of romantic painters headed by Johann Friedrich Overbeck
Johann Friedrich Overbeck
Johann Friedrich Overbeck , was a German painter and member of the Nazarene movement. He also made four etchings.-Biography:...
and Peter Cornelius
Peter Cornelius
Carl August Peter Cornelius was a German composer, writer about music, poet and translator. He was born and died in Mainz where his grave in the Hauptfriedhof survives....
. He studied with them the early Italian style of painting, which was then considered primitive.
In 1803-1804 he painted a large picture, "Andromache i Afmagt ved Synet af Hectors mishandlede Lig" ("Andromache
Andromache
In Greek mythology, Andromache was the wife of Hector and daughter of Eetion, and sister to Podes. She was born and raised in the city of Cilician Thebe, over which her father ruled...
, Powerless at the Sight of Hector
Hector
In Greek mythology, Hectōr , or Hektōr, is a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. As the first-born son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, a descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy, he was a prince of the royal house and the...
’s Maligned Corpse") which was seized by English pirates in 1807 on its voyage to Denmark. This was during the times of the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
when England and Denmark were enemies. This painting is now in the Danish Ambassador’s residence in Rome. A companion piece painted between 1807-1811, "Pyrrhus og Andromache ved Hectors Grav" ("Pyrrhus
Neoptolemus
Neoptolemus was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia in Greek mythology. Achilles' mother foretold many years before Achilles' birth that there would be a great war. She saw that her only son was to die if he fought in the war...
and Andromache at Hector’s Grave"), was contributed to the Danish Royal Painting Collection, now the Danish National Gallery (Statens Museum for Kunst)
Statens Museum for Kunst
Statens Museum for Kunst is the Danish national gallery located in Copenhagen....
, by Baron Schubart, General Consul in Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
.
These paintings helped establish himself as an idealistic and romantic painter, in contrast to rival neoclassicist
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg was a Danish painter. He was born in Blåkrog in the Duchy of Schleswig , to Henrik Vilhelm Eckersberg, painter and carpenter, and Ingeborg Nielsdatter...
’s realistic
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
approach to the visual arts. These two artists represented for many years opposing viewpoints and cultural ideals in the Danish art scene.
An Academic career
He began exhibiting at Charlottenborg in 1812, and exhibited there routinely until 1861. The Academy also invited him to apply for membership in 1812. He submitted the painting "Habor og Signe" (Hagbard and Signy
Hagbard and Signy
Hagbard and Signe or Habor and Sign'ild were a pair of lovers in Scandinavian mythology and folklore whose legend was widely popular. The heroes' connections with other legendary characters place the events in the 5th century AD...
) for consideration, and he was accepted into the Academy in 1814. While his Nordic-themed painting received praise, it was not displayed in the large painting gallery. And while he received the Academy's endorsement to become member, he did not receive their recommendation to become either royal history painter or professor.
The Academy, considering not only Lund’s bid for the position, but also that of his rival Eckersberg as well as that of Christian Gotlieb Kratzenstein-Stub, wished to postpone a decision until Eckersberg returned home from his student travels. Lund lost his patience with these delays, and traveled back to Rome where he lived from 1816-1819. He had now decided to establish himself as an altar painter, and as a member of the Nazarenes.
In 1818 with support from Prince Christian Frederik
Christian VIII of Denmark
Christian VIII , was king of Denmark from 1839 to 1848 and, as Christian Frederick, king of Norway in 1814. He was the eldest son of Hereditary Prince Frederick of Denmark and Norway and Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, born in 1786 at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen...
, he was finally named professor at the Academy along with Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg was a Danish painter. He was born in Blåkrog in the Duchy of Schleswig , to Henrik Vilhelm Eckersberg, painter and carpenter, and Ingeborg Nielsdatter...
. Kratzenstein-Stub ceased being under consideration upon his death in 1816.
He then returned to Copenhagen accompanied by Bertel Thorvaldsen in 1819, and married Augusta Lorentzen, daughter of the organist, Johan Henrich Lorentzen, and his wife, Frederikke Vilhelmine Lintrup, on 24 December 1820.
The hiring of the two counterparts to the School of Model Painting brought new vitality to the Academy. But while Eckersberg’s star and realism were on the ascent, and he would come to be remembered as the father of the Golden Age of Danish Painting
Golden Age of Danish Painting
The Danish Golden Age covers the period of creative production in Denmark, especially during the first half of the 19th century. Although Copenhagen had suffered from fires, bombardment and national bankruptcy, the arts took on a new period of creativity catalysed by Romanticism from Germany...
, Lund’s star and romanticism were primarily on the descent.
But during his 42 years at the Academy Lund had a strong influence on his many students. He encouraged them to study 17th century Dutch landscape art, which could be readily seen in Copenhagen. His Romantic approach to art was greatly appreciated by a group of young landscape painters who were younger than Eckersberg’s pupils; they aimed to produce evocative landscapes in reaction to Eckersberg’s precise depictions of nature. This trend culminated in the large-scale landscapes of the Nationalist Romantic
Romantic nationalism
Romantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...
style, His closest students include historical painter Ditlev Blunck
Ditlev Blunck
Ditlev Conrad Blunck was a Danish painter associated with the Danish Golden Age during the first half of the 19th century.-Biography:...
, and landscape painters Johan Thomas Lundbye, Dankvart Dreyer
Dankvart Dreyer
Dankvart Dreyer was a Danish landscape painter of the Copenhagen School of painters who was educated under the guidance of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg...
, P.C. Skovgaard, and Vilhelm Kyhn
Vilhelm Kyhn
Peter Vilhelm Carl Kyhn, was a Danish landscape painter who belonged to the generation of national romantic painters immediately after the Danish Golden Age and before the Modern Breakthrough...
.
He served as Treasurer of the Academy 1821-1832, and again 1854-1866. He stopped teaching in 1861, and was eventually titled etatsråd (state advisor or council). He was never named to the highest post at the Academy, Director of the Academy, unlike Eckersberg, his old rival, who served in that capacity from 1827-1829.
He had a cheerful and positive personality and was fresh and full of life to the age of 99. He died of natural causes without any sign of sickness during his sleep.
Lund kept his international orientation throughout his life in contrast to the growing nationalism and regionalism in the arts. He continued to keep his contacts in Germany and Italy.
Works
Christiansborg Palace
Christiansborg Palace, , on the islet of Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, is the seat of the Folketing , the Danish Prime Minister's Office and the Danish Supreme Court...
in Copenhagen, which depicted Denmark’s various cultural time periods. These include "Christendommens indførelse i Danmark" ("Christianity’s Introduction in Denmark") painted in 1827, until then the largest oil painting to have been painted in Denmark. Again his assignment was matched by a comparable one given to Eckersberg. in which he painted the Oldenborg royal family line in eight large pictures, presumably to replace those painted by Abildgaard and destroyed in the fire of 1794.
The other painting in Lund’s series are "Nordisk offerscene fra den Odinske periode" ("Nordic Sacrificial Scene from the Period of Odin") painted in 1831, "Solens tilbedelse" ("Worship of the Sun") painted in 1834, "Procession ved Kristi Legemsfest fra den katolske tid i Danmark" ("Corpus Christi Procession from Denmark’s Catholic Period") painted in 1834, and "Luthersk gudstjeneste" ("Lutheran Church Service") painted in 1843.
Lund’s and Eckersberg’s paintings survived the fire at Christiansborg in 1884.
He is also well-known for his altarpieces and paintings of religious themes, which were influenced by his admiration for such renaissance painters as Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico , born Guido di Pietro, was an Early Italian Renaissance painter described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent"...
, Perugino og Rafael.
His small landscapes also received favour from art historian, critic and advocate of a national art movement, Niels Lauritz Høyen
Niels Lauritz Høyen
Niels Laurits Andreas Høyen, , Danish is considered to be the first Danish art historian and critic. He promoted a Danish nationalistic art through his writings and lectures, and exerted a far reaching effect on contemporary artists...
. He painted few portraits. He designed the main curtain of the Royal Theatre (Det kongelige teater) with a view of the Acropolis in 1828, which still hangs to this day. A preliminary sketch of the project is in the Theatre Museum. The Royal Theatre owns other artpieces of his.
Early Italian art, his contact with the Nazarenes, fellow countryman and expatriate Bertel Thorvaldsen
Bertel Thorvaldsen
Bertel Thorvaldsen was a Danish-Icelandic sculptor of international fame, who spent most of his life in Italy . Thorvaldsen was born in Copenhagen into a Danish/Icelandic family of humble means, and was accepted to the Royal Academy of Arts when he was eleven years old...
, and for romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
’s ideals, all left an indelible influence on his artistic production.
The Royal Library houses a collection of his letters, inclusive correspondence with younger artists that bears witness to his influence on them.
He is portrayed as an old man in a painting by one of his students, Professor August Schiøtt, a prodigious portraitist. This portrait, considered one of his best, led to Schiott’s membership in the Academy in 1854.
Lund’s works appear in various Danish art museums, including the Danish National Gallery (Statens Museum for Kunst)
Statens Museum for Kunst
Statens Museum for Kunst is the Danish national gallery located in Copenhagen....
. His works are also in the collections of several Danish castles, as well as religious works to be found at various Danish churches.
He was an educated, cultured and diligent man and artist, with good contacts. He left a lasting impression by his many monumental paintings still widely on display, and by the effect he had on a generation of artists due to his long professorship at the Academy.