VILLA BORGHESE :: Christa Zaat

Christa Zaat



Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (Danish painter) 1783 - 1853
The so-called Raphael's Villa in the Garden of the Villa Borghese in Rome, 1814-16
oil on canvas
27.5 x 24.5 cm.
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany

Catalogue Note Statens Museum for Kunst
In the early nineteenth century the gatekeeper’s lodge in the gardens of the Villa Borghese, known as Casa Cenci, was erroneously believed to be a former studio of Raphael. The widespread admiration for the Renaissance master at the time prompted many artists to paint the buildings. Eckersberg was the first Danish painter to do so. The distinctive cubic shapes and the angled slopes appealed to his sense of image construction. Several of his fellow artists and students followed in his footsteps. They all painted the house from the same angle, but varied the lighting.

* * *

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.