The Danish Golden Age of Painting

            Taking a break from all of the outdoor excursions, yesterday’s fieltrip was to the Hirschsprung collection, a museum located in Østre Anlæg—one of the parks we had already visited. On this visit, we specifically explored art created during the Danish golden age of painting.  The Danish golden age of painting is characterized by landscapes. In many of the paintings of this time, artists were interested in capturing Denmark’s many natural settings.

            This age of painting displays how important a role landscape plays in Danish culture. In their paintings, the artists show how Danish landscape has many common themes. What was interesting was that despite the different artistic styles, so many of the paintings of this time showed many of the same lanscapes—rolling grassy hills, Danish burial mounds, shore lines and beaches. Ultimately, these artists effectively show the importance of Denmark’s natural environment on both national identity and individual creativity.

            Of all the artists we studied my favorite was Peder Severin Krøyer. Though, like many of the other painters of his time, he focused on Denmark’s landscape, specifically the shore line, his paintings seemed to have so much emotion. While other paintings focused solely on area and setting, Krøyer uses the setting as a backdrop for human interaction.  For example, His painting, Summer evening on Skagen's Beach was both breathtaking and illuminating. In this painting, the artist and his wife stand side by side on a beach, while staring off into the distance. The mood is melancholy and blue.

Summer evening on Skagen's Beach

            One of the more interesting parts of this visit was seeing how despite the fact that many people view art as based purely on creative self expression, there are common cultural factors which influence the style and themes of art in a certain time period. While all of the art was beautiful in its own way, seeing how each artist focused so heavily on the theme of landscape reinforced the power that nature and culture plays in artisitic creation.

Other examples of art from the Danish golden age of painting:

Christen Købke, View of Lake Sortedam,

P. S Kroyer, Summer Day At The South Beach Of Skagen

J.Th. Lundbye, Autumn landscape