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Christa Zaat



Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (Danish painter) 1783 - 1853
Forum Romanum set fra Colosseum (The Forum Romanum from the Colosseum), ca. 1814-16
oil on canvas
35 x 27.5 cm. (13.75 x 10.75 in.)
private collection

Catalogue Note Sotheby's
'Eckersberg painted several views of the Colosseum while in Rome. His biographer Emil Hannover lists seven in his 1898 catalogue. Considering its small size, the present work might be among the first three canvases the artist had started to paint on the spot, according to his diary of 28 March and 5 April 1815. In 1816 he again recorded that he was working on views from the Colosseum. By this time he may have completed the main composition in this group, View Through Three of the Northwestern Arches in the Third Story of the Colosseum (fig. 1).

The vast ruin [of the Colosseum] was at this time being excavated as part of the plan of Napoleon's occupying forces to restore the city's architectural glories. As can be seen in this little painting, representing a view from the second level of the Colosseum, the picturesque but destructive vegetation on the masonry had been removed. The stones of the arches stand clean and bare, and only on the level ground between them has a little greenery been allowed to grow.

In November the year following Eckersberg's arrival, he again mentioned the Colosseum in a letter to Clemens: "This summer they have completed excavation of the beautiful and still fairly well preserved ancient monument, the Colosseum" (Henrik Bramsen et al., 'Eckersbergs brevkoncepter & dagbog 1813-1816', Meddelelser fra Thovaldsens Museum 1973, Copenhagen, 1974, 70). In doing this, they had revealed the underground structures, with their many systems of corridors. When these started to fill up with water, however, they had to be covered up again in the late summer of 1814. In the same letter Eckersberg described the newly laid out area as a "beautiful subject for a painting I intend to make next summer." Yet in the present work it is not the arena but the apse of the Temple of Venus in front of the church of Santa Francesca Romana that is given prominence, seen through the opening of an arch, while farther off to the right the dome of SS. Luca and Martina is visible.

Eckersberg painted a number of images of the view from just one arch in the Colosseum, and he often used an arch, a door, or an embrasure to frame a scene. Perhaps by fixing his motifs in this way he was able to focus on a comprehensible fragment of the city, out of its virtually incomprehensible profusion of interesting and picturesque buildings and views' (excerpt from Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 2003-2004, p. 102).

FIG. 1, C. W. Eckersberg, A View Through Three of the Northwestern Arches of the Third Storey of the Colosseum, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
380D08101_comp

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Eckersberg was born in Blåkrog in the Duchy of Schleswig (now the southern part of Jutland in Denmark), to Henrik Vilhelm Eckersberg, painter and carpenter, and Ingeborg Nielsdatter.
After being trained in Copenhagen and studying in Paris (1810-13) under Jacques-Louis David, he continued his studies in Rome (1814), where he executed a masterly portrait of his friend Thorvaldsen (Royal Academy, Copenhagen, 1815). Returning to Copenhagen in 1816, he occupied himself mainly with portraits, minutely rendering the features of his models with a Neoclassic feeling for c1arity and purity of line. He also painted many landscapes, however (as he had done in Rome), and as an influential teacher at the Copenhagen Academy (from 1818) he introduced painting from nature into the curriculum. He also executed some religious themes and subjects from Danish history in Christiansborg Palace.

His pupils included Johan Christian Dahl and Christen Købke. He has been called 'the father of Danish painting' because of the influence he exerted on Danish painters in the second quarter of the 19th century. With Christen Købke he was the leading painter of the Danish 'Golden Age' (c. 1800-1850).
He is referred to as the Father of Danish painting.