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En dansk yacht passerer Stevns (A Danish Yacht passing Stevns) signed with initial and dated 'E.1844' (lower right) oil on canvas 183/4 x 173/4 in. (47.6 x 45.1 cm) Painted in 1843-45 PROVENANCE Mr. F. Holm. Mr. Hjalmar Bruhn (1881-1959) and thence by descent to the present owners. LITERATURE E. Hannover, Maleren C.W. Eckersberg - En Studie i Dansk Kunsthistorie, Copenhagen, 1898, pp. 256 and 403, no. 587. V. Winkel & Magnussen, Kunst i privat eje, Copenhagen, 1945, vol. II, pp. 42-44 (illustrated). EXHIBITION Copenhagen, 1845. Copenhagen, Kunstforeningen, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, October-November 1895, no. 318. NOTES "Rightly, Christopher Wilhelm Eckersberg has been called the father of Danish painting, for it was he who tied together the diverse strands of Danish and foreign artistic traditions and bequeathed this fusion to his students, enabling them to climb to high levels of artistic achievement" (N. Kent, The Triumph of Light and Nature, Nordic Art 1740-1940, London, 1987, p. 30). Eckersberg lived at a time when Denmark's self-esteem was at a low ebb, both politically and economically. Their support for France during the Napoleonic wars was disastrous, leading to the French defeat at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 and the bombardment of Copenhagen by Nelson in 1807. When Napoleon was defeated in 1815, Denmark suffered further catastrophes when the allies transferred sovereignty of Norway from Denmark to Sweden. Eckersberg first studied with Abildgaard in Copenhagen but in 1810 went to Paris to study with Jacques-Louis David, who taught him 'to paint after Nature and the Antique in order to find Truth'. By 1813 he was in Rome, returning to Copenhagen in 1816. Danish painters of this time very much wanted to escape from political and economic catastrophes and they turned to the subject matter at hand, scenes of everyday life. Eckersberg, for example, combined the technical lessons he had learnt in France and Italy with Danish subject matter; portraits of local dignitaries and scenes of maritime life for example. Hannover ( loc. cit. ) writes that Eckersberg's private diary was literally a record of the activity in Danish harbours. His diary on 18th June 1843 states, 'have started to paint a sailing yacht' and on 3rd January 1845, 'started to paint (again) a yacht' and 'Have been working on and have finished the yacht', 22 January 1845. The time lapse was probably due to Eckersberg's eyesight which was impaired. By 1845 his condition was improving and, according to Hannover: 'On several occasions he took out old works and repainted them, and the sky and the sea were in most of these a loud blue, and the foam of the waves and the sails bright white. A Danish Yacht passing Stevns was thus started in 1843. It could seem that in the year of the Lord 1845 when he finished these works, for a while the safest was to paint on solid older foundations' ( loc. cit. ). Winkel and Magnussen ( loc. cit. ) were also impressed by the present work. They comment, " A Danish Yacht passing by Stevns, the painting with the wide bellied schuit, which with the wind from the stern roaringly rushes forward in the picture. The ship is wonderfully drawn, and the interesting spread of canvas with the cross sail which was used then instead of the spinnaker, are circumstances which reconcile us with the colour of the sea with the - for Eckersberg - somewhat peculiar blue tone." "Eckersberg portrays the sea as precisely as he depicted Rome and its campagna. Ships and frigates sail by one another, graceful and majestic, like the figures in an antique frieze, with an extraordinary architectural plasticity and total integration with the Danish sky and sea" (Kent, op. cit.,, p. 31).