The first exhibition of paintings by Christen Købke (1810–1848) ever to be shown outside Denmark has come about in part thanks to research funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
The exhibition, entitled ‘Christen Købke: Danish Master of Light‘, opens at the National Gallery in London on March 17th, before it moves in July to the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. It represents the culmination of a two year research project into Købke’s work by Professor David Jackson of the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds, funded by a grant from the AHRC.
Underappreciated in his lifetime, Købke is now revered as one of the most talented and influential artists of his generation, and the leading figure of Denmark’s celebrated ‘Golden Age‘ in the early 19th century.
“Købke captures this period really precisely and beautifully”, says Professor Jackson
Thanks to the research grant from the AHRC, and aided by his Danish research assistant Sine Krogh, Professor Jackson has been able to make frequent trips to Denmark to examine Købke’s original letters and other papers in the archives of the Royal Danish Academy Library and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Copenhagen. He has also secured loans of Købke’s works from such prestigious institutions as the Statens Museum for Kunst, the Hirschsprung Collection and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, along with the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and even the Musée de Louvre in Paris.
Professor Jackson has played a key role in organising, and will be acting as guest curator of, the two exhibitions, in collaboration with the National Gallery and the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. He hopes that these exhibitions, with the National Gallery in London expecting to receive an estimated 100,000 visitors, will help expose a wider audience to the celebrated artist. “Købke is someone whose work really encapsulates and sums up a period”, he says, “someone who has been of huge importance in the development of Danish painting. We hope to introduce him to an audience that won’t know him.”
END
Media Contact:
AHRC Communications Manager, Jake Gilmore 0117 9876 773 / j.gilmore@ahrc.ac.uk
Or at the National Gallery, Nicola Jeffs: 0207 747 2532 / nicola.jeffs@ng-london.org.uk
Notes to Editors
‘Christen Købke: Danish Master of Light’ is organised by the National Gallery with the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, where it will follow from 5 July until 3 October 2010.
The exhibition is curated by David Jackson and Christopher Riopelle. David Jackson is Professor of Russian and Scandinavian Art Histories at the University of Leeds. Christopher Riopelle is Curator of Post-1800 Paintings at the National Gallery, London.
The exhibition is supported by The A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation, Copenhagen
This show comprises 48 of Købke’s most beautiful and distinguished works spanning a variety of genres: landscape, topography, portraiture and his charmingly oblique depictions of national monuments informed by a decidedly avant-garde sensibility. They present some of the most innovative aspects of his work – including outdoor sketching, his fascination with painterly immediacy and his unique treatment of light and atmosphere.
Scenes include those of his home town, Copenhagen (The Northern Drawbridge to the Citadel in Copenhagen, 1837, The National Gallery, London); portraits of many of his family and closest friends ('Portrait of the Artist’s Mother, Cecilia Margrete, née Petersen', 1829, National Galleries of Scotland. Purchased with the aid of The Art Fund 2002); detailed representations of fellow artists ('Portrait of the Landscape Painter Frederik Sødring', 1832, The Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen) and of Danish national monuments ('Frederiksborg Castle. View Near the Møntbro Bridge', 1836, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen)
Denmark’s ‘Golden Age’ – the term used to describe the amazing diversity of intellectual, scientific and cultural achievements of the first half of the 19th century – was nevertheless a time of social inequality and economic collapse as the nation was declared bankrupt in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. Yet Denmark recovered with remarkable swiftness and creative endeavour to produce in its art defining images of a peaceful, innocent, ordered society.
National Gallery Dates and opening hours
Open to public: 17 March – 13 June 2010
Open daily 10am–6pm, Friday until 9pm
Last admission 5.15pm (8.15pm Friday)
Admission Free
Catalogue: 'Christen Købke: Danish Master of Light'
David Jackson with an essay by Kasper Monrad
Published by the National Galleries of Scotland in co-operation with the National Gallery, London. Distributed by Yale University Press
Images: Publicity images for 'Christen Købke: Danish Master of Light' can be obtained from the National Gallery.
Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £102 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,350 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.
The National Gallery: The National Gallery houses the national collection of Western European painting from the 13th to the 19th centuries.