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Lot Essay
The attribution to C.W. Eskersberg was confirmed on the basis of a photograph by Erik Fisher in a communication dated 6 May 2002. The model for this drawing, Florentine, was also used by Eckersberg in a pencil drawing dated 21 August 1840 in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen (illustrated in E. Fischer, Tegninger af C.W. Eckersberg, exhib. cat., Copenhagen, 1983, no. 109). Eckersberg, who kept a careful diary of his activities, noted that for a month between 20 August and 19 September 1840 a young model named Florentine posed for him (Copenhagen, Den Hirschsprunge Samling, Den nogne guldalder - Modelbilleder - C.W. Eckersberg og hans elever, 1994, p. 170). She modelled for Eckersberg either in his apartment in the Charlottenborg Palace, or in the studio on Kongers Nytorv, or in the small room next to the studio called 'The yellow room'.
Eckersberg studied under Abilgaard at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Copenhagen from 1803 to 1810. In that year he left for Paris where he studied under Jacques-Louis David. From Paris he travelled to Rome to meet the Danish sculptor Berthel Thorvaldsen. On his return to Copenhagen he was named professor at the Academy and in 1827 became its director. He instituted a number of reforms in the Academies teaching practices, and gave great emphasis to the study of perspective and drawing from life. His fame as a painter, his reforms of the Academy and the great number of his pupils have secured his reputation as the 'Father of Danish Painting'.
On 4 January 1833 Eckersberg noted in his diary 'This evening we had for the first time a female model in the class', K. Monrad, L'âge d'or de la peinture danoise, 1800-1850, exhib. cat., Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 1984, p. 164. In 1822 reforms at the Academy authorised the use of female models in drawing classes, although women did not actually pose before 1833, and even at that date could only be semi-nude. It was only from that year that Eckersberg began to draw and paint female models (see for example Paris, op. cit., nos. 67 and 72 for pictures). He often positioned his models among furniture or within an architectural background to highlight the contrasts of a rigourous perspective and hard lines with the roundness of the female body.
Eckersberg studied under Abilgaard at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Copenhagen from 1803 to 1810. In that year he left for Paris where he studied under Jacques-Louis David. From Paris he travelled to Rome to meet the Danish sculptor Berthel Thorvaldsen. On his return to Copenhagen he was named professor at the Academy and in 1827 became its director. He instituted a number of reforms in the Academies teaching practices, and gave great emphasis to the study of perspective and drawing from life. His fame as a painter, his reforms of the Academy and the great number of his pupils have secured his reputation as the 'Father of Danish Painting'.
On 4 January 1833 Eckersberg noted in his diary 'This evening we had for the first time a female model in the class', K. Monrad, L'âge d'or de la peinture danoise, 1800-1850, exhib. cat., Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 1984, p. 164. In 1822 reforms at the Academy authorised the use of female models in drawing classes, although women did not actually pose before 1833, and even at that date could only be semi-nude. It was only from that year that Eckersberg began to draw and paint female models (see for example Paris, op. cit., nos. 67 and 72 for pictures). He often positioned his models among furniture or within an architectural background to highlight the contrasts of a rigourous perspective and hard lines with the roundness of the female body.