Christopher Wilhelm
Eckersberg

From 1803 he studied at the Academy of fine arts in Copenhagen, graduated in 1809 with a gold medal and received a scholarship to travel to Paris. In 1811-12 he studied in the Studio of J. L. David. In 1813-16 he lived in Rome. Since 1817 Professor of the Academy of arts in Copenhagen, 1827-29 its Director. Because of vision problems stopped writing. Died July 22, 1853 in Copenhagen during a cholera epidemic. Buried in Copenhagen.

Early landscapes of the Italian period (the Tiber near Ponte Rotto; the View through the arches of the Colosseum, both of Copenhagen, GOS. Museum of art) performed in the manner of academic landscape painting of the XIX century, the Artist sought to transfer the unity of plans and the depth of the panoramic view, the volumes of medieval churches in the landscape Aventine hills and the Roman city buildings do not lose their plastic certainty in the thin light-haze. Sculpturally weighty look ancient stones of the Colosseum, which becomes reddish-brown in bright lighting (interior of the Colosseum, Copenhagen, GOS. Museum of art). In Italy was performed, and a portrait of each artist B. Thorvaldsen (1814, Copenhagen, charlottenborg Palace, the recurrence — Stockholm, NAT. Museum, Copenhagen, New carlbergska Glyptothek). The canvas is written in a manner neoklassitsisticheskoy portrait of XVIII—XIX centuries, the Sculptor is depicted in the background of his famous relief of Alexander the great's Entry into Babylon, which is the leitmotif of the image. Neutral grey-blue background, a clear outline of the figure, the material transferred to the accessories show the influence of J. L. David. In a similar manner, and executed the portraits of Mrs. Schmidt (1814, Copenhagen, private collection), the Nathanson Family (1818, Copenhagen, GOS. Museum of art), a girl from a family Marsman (1820, Denmark, private collection). In later years, Eckersberg revisits the landscape, writes mainly of the Marina. In pictures of Russian battleships at anchor (1828), seascape with sailing boat (1831-1832), the Corvette "Galathea" in a storm (1839, all — Copenhagen, GOS. Museum of art) the desire to reproduce the light and air of the sea coast testifies to the thin beautiful talent artist, the search, relatives of the European romantic "landscape of mood".