Julius Exner
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...
genre painter, was born in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
to Johann Gottlieb Exner, a Czech musician from Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, who came to Denmark during the Napoleonic period, and his wife Karen Jørgensdatter. Exner originally intended on becoming a history painter
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...
, but quickly found his niche, however, in genre painting, the most popular and lucrative painting style of his era. His genre paintings figured prominently in Denmark’s National Romantic period, an artistic period directly after 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...
, when artistic focus was turned inwards to uniquely Danish themes.
Artistic training and early career
The younger Exner was interested in drawing and painting from an early age and was put in private training after his confirmation. He began to study 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) April 1839, where he intended on becoming a history painter. He caught the attention of Professor J. L. Lund
J. L. Lund
Johan Ludwig Gebhard Lund , , Danish painter, was born in Kiel, Duchy of Holstein, to master painter Hans Giewert Lund and his wife Maria Magdalena Christina Bremer...
, from whom he learned history painting. He studied later on 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...
, closely linked to the Golden Age of Danish Painting and commonly referred to as the Father of Danish Painting.
He won the Academy’s little silver medallion in 1843, and the large silver medallion in 1845. In these early years he exhibited several history paintings as well a number of portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
s. One of these portraits, a portrait of his sister, won him the Academy’s Neuhausens prize (Neuhausens præmie) in 1847.
In 1849 one of his history paintings, "Thyra Danebod forsøger at formilde Gorm den Gamles vrede mod nogle fangne kristne" ("Thyra Danebod Tries to Placate Gorm the Elder’s Anger with Imprisoned Christians"), was purchased by 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....
. Another painting from 1851, "Marsk Stigs Døtre" ("Marsk Stig’s Daughters"), was commissioned by Count Frederik Christian Julius Knuth to hang at Knuthenborg Palace. The Count was generous with Exner, not only paying him well but providing him with a studio for several years. Both of these painting depict an ancient Danish history and legend.
Painting the folk life on Amager
But even Exner admitted to having an irrational "emotional desire to become a history painter" ("usalige lyst til at blive historiemaler"). Niels Lauritz HøyenNiels 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...
, critic, Academy professor and advocate of a national art movement, helped influence Exner’s future artistic direction, and Exner began seeking out the unique Danish folktypes living in the county as artistic subjects. This brought him to Amager
Amager
Amager is a Danish island in the Øresund. The Danish capital, Copenhagen, is partly situated on Amager, which is connected to the much larger island of Zealand by five bridges.-History:...
, an island south of Copenhagen, where Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
farmers had settled in 1521, but who were still relatively unknown to their fellow Danes. There he painted his masterly, life-size "En Amagerkone, der tæller sine Penge efter" ("A Woman from Amager Counting Her Money"), which was exhibited in 1852, and was purchased by the National Collection.
He was not only influenced by the national art movement promoted by Høyen, but also by the strong sense of patriotism during those times after the Napoleonic Wars, and by the general use of particularly “Danish” themes in not only the visual arts, but also in literature and theatre. These themes focused on the folktypes in various areas of Denmark, especially those living in the country and on the farm. In the visual arts a generation of artísts had been already exploring such themes as typical Danish landscapes, and the depiction of Danish and Nordic themes, mythological stories and history. Many of the artists in the preceding generation were students of Eckersberg, and comprised the group of artists collectively known as the Golden Age of Danish Painting artists. They had been affected by Eckersberg’s stress on attentive study and representation of Danish nature, as well as by the technical skills he taught them to achieve those goals.
A follow up painting to his first Amager painting was "Et Besøg hos Bedstefaderen" ("A Visit to Grandfather’s House") painted in 1853, which assured him a successful career with its wide popularity and many reproductions. He won a 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...
s exhibition medallion for the work, and the painting was purchased for the National Collection.
He painted a number of painting on Amager over a period of years, and his skills grew as he depicted a combination of artistic challenges: increasingly complicated groups of people, a view out to the open land, colorful folk costumes, and the interiors of old farmer homes. These paintings attracted an interested public, who was fascinated by this close-up look at the exotic foreigners living in Denmark side-by-side with them. It was a chance to come into the home of strangers and see their everyday life. Exner was skilled and portrayed his subjects with affection, interest and gentle humour.
He often traveled to the countryside during the summers to do live studies from nature, as was common practice in these times, working up finished paintings in the studio during the winter. And he also began seeking out themes in other locations on Sjælland.as well, which resulted in "Et Bondegilde i Hedeboegnen" ("A Party on the Farm in the Hedebo Area") painted in 1856, as well as others of the same ilk. One of his paintings "Lille pige lader en gammel mand lugte til en blomst" ("A Little Girl Lets an Old Man Smell a Flower") painted in 1856, proved to be the start of Heinrich Hirschsprung
Heinrich Hirschsprung
Heinrich Hirschsprung was a Danish tobacco manufacturer, arts patron and art collector, founder of the Hirschsprung Collection in Copenhagen, a museum dedicated to Danish art from the 19th and early 20th century....
’s collection (the museum now known as the Hirschsprung Collection in Copenhagen), when he purchased it in 1866.
Travels
He received a two-year travel stipend from the Academy (1857-1858) for a student travel to Italy, which took him also to DresdenDresden
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....
, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, in addition to the Italian cities of Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
, 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....
, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
and 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...
. He occasionally painted depictions of Italy, including his well-known "En gondol" ("A Gondola") from 1859, a view looking out from the dark interior of a covered gondola
Gondola
The gondola is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian Lagoon. For centuries gondolas were the chief means of transportation and most common watercraft within Venice. In modern times the iconic boats still have a role in public transport in...
. A young woman at the left-hand side of the canvas peers out from the dark; a gondolier on the right-hand side of the central archway leans in towards the center of the painting, bathed in light. Beyond is a glimpse of the waterway and other boats.
He illustrated poet Christian Winther
Christian Winther
Rasmus Villads Christian Ferdinand Winther , was a Danish lyric poet.He was born at Fensmark near Næstved, where his father was the vicar. He went to the University of Copenhagen in 1815, and studied theology, taking his degree in 1824. He began to publish verse in 1819, but no collected volume...
’s "Billeder og Vers" ("Pictures and Verses") in 1862. He married Inger Henriette Sophie Jensine Ringsted on June 15, 1863.
He traveled to Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
several times between 1863-1864, and on his travels in Denmark he reached Jutland
Jutland
Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...
’s northernmost point-- Skagen
Skagen
Skagen is a projection of land and a town, with a population of 8,515 , in Region Nordjylland on the northernmost tip of Vendsyssel-Thy, a part of the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark...
-- in 1867, the fishing village that, a generation later, would play host to the group of artists known as the Skagen Painters
Skagen Painters
The Skagen Painters were a group of Scandinavian artists who gathered in the area of Skagen, the northernmost part of Denmark, from the late 1870s until the turn of the century...
.
A member of the Academy
In 1864 he became a member of the Academy in Denmark, and in 1866 the Academy in StockholmStockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden. He painted another famous painting of Amager folk, the cheerful "Blindebuk" ("Blind Man’s Bluff") depicting a farmhouse interior with children at play, in 1866. In an age where industrialisation was fast encroaching on traditional farmlife, Exner depicted a timeless vision of several generations of farm folk, gathered around in their idealised and cheerful house, self-sufficient and happy. A later generation of artists would rebel against this idealisation with their realistic
Realism (visual arts)
Realism in the visual arts is a style that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see. The term is used in different senses in art history; it may mean the same as illusionism, the representation of subjects with visual mimesis or verisimilitude, or may mean an emphasis on the actuality of...
depictions of want and need among the same types of people.
He also painted portraits of the day’s prosperous and prominent, such as Jenny Adler, wife of businessman, banker and politician David Baruch Adler, with her daughters in 1868, and the elderly poet "Christian Winther paa Spaseretur" ("Christian Winther on a Walking Tour") in 1869.
He was named Professor at the Danish Academy in 1876 after having been an assistant professor in the School of Model Painting since 1872.
His later years
Starting in the late 1870’s Exner began painting themes from FanøFanø
Fanø is a Danish island in the North Sea off the coast of southwestern Denmark, and is the very northernmost of the Danish Wadden Sea Islands...
, a Danish island in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
off the west coast of Jutland
Jutland
Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...
, the Danish mainland. He came to the island for the first time in 1877. He and his family spent the summers there annually for many years to come. He had a studio at Sønderho Kro. There he found a group of people whose lives interested him deeply, a folk who were fast becoming extinguished in the social changes of that time. These themes made excellent subjects for his painting until his death.
His work was exhibited at the world exhibition in Paris in 1878.
He received a Treschow award in 1887. He became a member of the Exhibition Committee at Charlottenborg
Charlottenborg Palace
Charlottenborg Palace is a large town mansion located on the corner of Kongens Nytorv and Nyhavn in Copenhagen, Denmark. Originally built as a residence for Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, it has served as the base of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts since its foundation in 1754...
in 1879, and was named head of the committee in 1890. He served in this capacity five years. He was a member of the School Council (Skolerådet) between 1883-1905, was Treasurer from 1884, and member of the Academy Council (Akademirådet) from 1887.
He painted several self-portraits in his final years, one in 1906 and one in 1910. He died November 15, 1910 in Copenhagen two weeks shy of his 85th birthday. He is buried in Holmen’s Cemetery in central Copenhagen.
He exhibited at the Spring Exhibition at Charlottenborg annually from 1844 until his death in 1910, with few exceptions.
Works
His works were exhibited at the Nordic Art Exhibition in Copenhagen (1872, 1883, 1888) and in Göteborg, Sweden in 1881, at the first International Art Exhibition in Vienna, Austria in 1882 and at the International Art Exhibition in Berlin in 1891.His work has been shown posthumously both in Denmark and internationally in numerous exhibitions of Danish art, including an exhibition in Paris in 1928.
His works are in the collection of many Danish museums including the National Art Museum (‘’Statens Museum for Kunst’’), the Hirschsprung Collection, and local art museums in Aarhus
Aarhus
Aarhus or Århus is the second-largest city in Denmark. The principal port of Denmark, Aarhus is on the east side of the peninsula of Jutland in the geographical center of Denmark...
, Randers
Randers
Randers is a city in Randers municipality on the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. It is Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 60,656 . Randers city is the main town of the municipality and the site of its municipal council.-Overview:Randers municipality has 94,750 inhabitants...
, Ribe
Ribe
Ribe , the oldest extant Danish town, is in southwest Jutland and has a population of 8,192 . Until 1 January 2007, it was the seat of both the surrounding municipality, and county...
, Amager
Amager
Amager is a Danish island in the Øresund. The Danish capital, Copenhagen, is partly situated on Amager, which is connected to the much larger island of Zealand by five bridges.-History:...
, northern Jutland
Jutland
Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...
, Frederiksborg
Frederiksborg
Frederiksborg is a Danish placename that can refer to:* Frederiksborg Palace* Frederiksborg County* Frederiksborg horse...
and Funen
Funen
Funen , with a size of 2,984 km² , is the third-largest island of Denmark following Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy, and the 163rd largest island of the world. Funen is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 454,358 inhabitants . The main city is Odense, connected to the...
.
Exner was a master of composition setting up a lively combination of characters, costumes, and interiors, along with an underlying anecdote, that showed an inspiration of Dutch and German paintings. He was interested in the people he portrayed. He idealised their lives, and his work led to the rebellion known as realism.
Other Danish genre painters of his generation were Christen Dalsgaard
Christen Dalsgaard
Christen Dalsgaard was a Danish painter, a late student of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg.- Early life and education:...
and Frederik Vermehren
Frederik Vermehren
Johan Frederik Nikolai Vermehren, also known as Frederik Vermehren, , Danish realistic genre and portrait painter, was born in Ringsted to glazier Peter Frederik Nikolai Vermehren and his wife Sofie Amalie. His artistic career took place during the period of Danish art between the Golden Age of...
. They all depicted Danish country folk.