a distinctive insight into the national in landscapes?

a distinctive insight into the national in landscapes? hans dam christensen A distinctive insight into the national in landscapes? An outlook on P.C. Skovgaard from a number of early survey texts Translated from Danish by James Manley The Skovgaard of the surveys On a journey through characterizations of P.C. Skovgaard in older articles and survey literature, one realizes that one of the first and oldest articles dealing with Skovgaard was in several ways to form the background for posterity s view of the artist. Certainly there are small shifts in the different presentations of Skovgaard, but this older article functions as a palimpsest. The art historian Julius Lange s (1838 1896) article Landskabsmaleren P.C. Skovgaard (The Landscape Painter P.C. Skovgaard) from 1866 seems to constitute the background for all the later literature. Although it is not always mentioned, it still underlies later views of the artist. The following article will trace out how Lange contributed to the image of Skovgaard as the most national among the Danish artists of the period, and how this status was preserved throughout the century not only as an appraisal of the artist, but also in the judgments of his fellow landscape painters. Art historical surveys constitute an inter es ting genre, because the individual presentations of selected artists and works are so to speak digested versions of more nuanced views and interpretations, to the extent that such views exist. In addition, as historiography, they bear their own forgetting within them. Each new survey in the same area is a threat to its predecessors if it achieves sufficient authority, even if the new one partly builds further on the old ones. For better or worse, the genre is based on the inevitable shortcomings of the individual authors, since 1

hans dam christensen it is not usually possible to have detailed knowledge of all the artists to be pre sented, for example in a survey of the history of Danish art. 1 In the overview presentations of the landscape painter Skovgaard it is not surprisingly the understanding of national identity that comes to the fore. Studies from the artist s late journeys abroad and influences from landscapes in foreign parts may for example be pointed out, but are still considered a lesser benefit (if given any attention at all). This is due to a resistance and mode of argumentation that denies that Skovgaard could paint works that were just as good as, or could actually be influenced by, landscapes outside the borders of Denmark. It is moreover interesting to follow the changes in the contexts in which the artist and his works are presented, for example in the views of related contemporary artists. Why is Skovgaard identified with the so-called Golden Age of Danish art and culture, when other contemporary Danish land scape painters are not? As indicated, it is not only Skovgaard s works that are at stake in this understanding of national identity. It is also the way they and the artist have been spoken of that perpetuates Skovgaard s status as a distinctively Danish landscape painter. A New Year s Gift from 1866 In the second half of the nineteenth century Julius Lange represented a modern approach to the history of art that was typical of the age in a broader European context. In 1871 he succeeded N.L. Høyen (1798 1870) in the chair of Art His tory at the University of Copenhagen, and compared with his predecessor he distanced himself to some extent from the traditional history of art. Høyen was interested in presenting the history of art as a movement towards the development of a national art and a broader national cultural history he mobilized the national ; although Høyen himself never succeeded in writing such a survey, it was in this period that the survey text on art arose as a genre. 2 In this light, Lange in the first place represents a movement towards an independent university subject with its own methods and independent objects. This was expressed for example in his magnum opus, Billedkunstens Fremstilling af Menneskeskikkelsen (The Representation of the Human Figure in the Visual Arts, 1892), which, without special reference to the history of Danish art, investigates the history of a motif. 3 As we shall see, however, this does not mean that the national is not a presence in Lange s texts. Especially for the young Julius Lange, and especially in his definition of artistic value ; although this was not apparently his intention, the national aspect is evident. 2

a distinctive insight into the national in landscapes? Lange s article, The Landscape Painter P.C. Skovgaard, was printed in the society Fremtiden s yearbook Nytaarsgave (New Year s Gift) 1866, and later reprinted in Nutids-Kunst (Contemporary Art, 1873), a volume of Lange s articles. 4 Fremtiden (The Future) was a newlyfounded pension society for workers of the spirit, which also raffled off art objects, books and musi cal works, and among other things arranged exhibitions and published books, including, in the period 1866 88, New Year s Gifts for members of the society. 5 The article begins with general reflections on the infancy of landscape painting, first among the Dutch artists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who had an [...] ineffably fine feeling for nature, and later in Denmark from the end of the eigh teenth century, although Danish landscape painting towards the middle of the nineteenth century had not yet been [...] perfected, though its task had been so ably and powerfully prepared. What was required was [...] an artist who felt Denmark to be his home, for whom the Danish countryside was more than the traditions of art; who had the power and calm and assurance of spirit, so to speak, to choose this task at his own risk [...] The time had become ripe to foster such an artist. 6 And several had in fact appeared, but [...] The one who first set the example, and who to this day stands as the most important among our landscape painters, is Skovgaard. Although according to Lange one must be cautious, he still almost ventures to claim [...] that it is Skovgaard who has created Danish landscape painting ; at all events he is the artist [...] who has contributed most to its creation. Skovgaard has [...] perhaps not given us any work that outshines, and few that can be mentioned alongside G. Rump s Four Seasons [...] But historically he still occupies the first place, and has been of the greatest importance to the subsequent lineage of landscape painters. 7 This assertion is followed by a biographical account, the broad lines of which are summarized here, since it is repeated in many subsequent characterizations. The account describes among other things Skovgaard s childhood and his family s arrival in Vejby in northern Zealand, which is to be crucial to Skovgaard s later career: The magnificent landscape of northern Zealand with the Kattegat close by must have been the best foster-mother of his dawning artistic spirit, and he began drawing early. 8 By various routes Skovgaard ends up at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copen hagen at the early age of 14. Although he does not benefit so much from the teaching at the Academy, he first meets the above-mentioned Godtfred Rump (1816 1880), who almost surpasses 3

hans dam christensen Skovgaard in Lange s article, and later J.Th. Lundbye (1818 1848). Through the teacher J.L. Lund (1777 1867) he also meets Dankvart Dreyer (1816 1852), [...] who promised well as a landscape painter. Alongside this Skovgaard makes the acquaintance of older landscape painting in the Copenhagen art collections: J.C. Dahl (1788 1857) and Jacob van Ruisdal (1628 1682), who according to Lange is the king of all Nordic landscape painters, as well as Allaert van Everdingen (1621 1675), Jan Dirksz Both (c. 1610 1652) and Jan Hackaert (1628 c. 1685). Skovgaard s first small landscape studies were painted in the winter of 1835, and one of them was later transferred to canvas with a view to participation in the Spring Exhibition of 1836. Skovgaard was not a pupil of C.W. Eckersberg (1783 1853), the so-called Father of Danish Painting, but still went to him to get the picture shown in the exhibition. Eckersberg probably com mented critically on the painting, but let it pass, and it was afterward bought by Prince Chris tian, the later King Christian VII (The toll house at Langebro, 1835, Museum of Copenhagen). This is a narrative that is often repeated in subsequent texts. In the years that follow, Lange continues, Skovgaard is finely tuned to [...] the national importance that art has and has had everywhere it has become rooted in the life of the people [...] What Skovgaard encountered as a clear, vital realization, evoked all the more response in his soul, inasmuch as it was associated with the heartfelt life he had shared since his earliest childhood with the Danish landscape, whose influence had later lived on undisturbed in his soul. 9 This comes to expression for example in the way Skovgaard does not depict the pristine Danish landscape as it was in prehistoric times, [...] but as it is right now, in the nineteenth century, with stiles and fences, roads and canals, avenues and gardens. The relationship of the artist friends Lundbye and Skovgaard is then described (as it will also be in later texts). Lange introduces a contrast which is similarly and often to recur in later accounts. He points out that from the beginning each saw nature in his own way: [...] Skovgaard was fondest of the enclosed views demarcated at the sides; Lundbye s eye looked rather to the open and the free; Skovgaard preferred to see things against the light; Lundbye more affected the broad falling light. Finally, Skovgaard had an [...] unusually sharp eye both for the close and for the distant; but in this he risked letting his eye dwell far too much on details. Lundbye sees far less sharply, which helps him [...] to see 4

a distinctive insight into the national in landscapes? masses and lines in the large. 10 In addition, as we know, Lundbye journeyed to Italy in 1845, while Skovgaard, mainly on the advice of Høyen, stayed home. This was in turn in order to [...] become intimately familiar with the Danish landscape. Not until 1854 did Skovgaard travel abroad (in the company of Høyen), but not in order to paint the foreign landscape, rather to immerse himself in the great artists of the past, especially Titian (1488/90 1576) and Claude Lorrain (1600 1682); according to Lange, these two artists were not represented in the Danish collections, so a closer acquaintance implied a journey out of the country. But, fortunately, [...] as early as the next spring he was back home and again at work on the Danish landscape. 11 Lange wrote a well-informed article which is in no direct need of correction with one important exception: Lange s view of Skovgaard s quite unique significance for Danish landscape painting was later toned down slightly, also by Lange himself in a later text. It is therefore worth noting that the high-flown rhetoric about Skovgaard s importance may be due to the fact that in 1866 he was a living artist, as well as a really close acquaintance of the above-men tioned Høyen, who was also very much alive. That year the young Lange was the first student ever to take a Danish master s degree in art history under the auspices of the same Høyen after the establishment of the subject at the University of Copenhagen in 1856. In other words Lange was a young art historian who was still unsure of his future and had not yet emerged as a champion of a new scientific view. So far he had still mainly written small articles in the newspaper Fædrelandet (Native Land), 12 which was a spokesman for the National-Liberal circles to which both Skovgaard and Høyen belonged. Moreover, in 1866 Lange married Louise Aagaard (1842 1927), daughter of the politician Georg Aagaard (1811 1857), who also belonged to this political environment. Without implying too much, one can say that Lange had access to privileged insight into Skov gaard s activities as well as a strong awareness of the national issue; not necessarily because it served him best, but because he shared the view. The artistic value of the landscape In the much later survey article on the history of Danish art in the encyclopedia Salmon sens Konversationsleksikon from 1895, written by a Julius Lange at the height of his career, it is repeated that it was not until around 1840 that there arose a generation of artists who were able depict the character of the Danish landscape with absolute purity and without the admixture of foreign landscape and art. 13 Lange remarks here that this happened before the flourishing of folk life painting. Lundbye is 5

hans dam christensen the first landscape painter to be menti oned. At first [...] just like his con tem porary C. Dalgas he still manifested impressions from the old Dutchmen, but later manifested the purest conception of the landscape of Denmark, especially Zealand. 14 This view of Lund bye can also already be found in the contemporary art criticism when the critic K.F. Wiborg (1813 1885) characterizes Landscape near Arresø (1838) as a painting with a truly Danish, patriotic character : No one could be in any doubt about which country this was, and that there was ideality in it. This statement must be seen in the light of earlier representations, which may well have rendered the vegetation correctly, but did not show the individual character of the nation. 15 In Lange s entry this is followed by Skovgaard, who primarily [...] had a genuine artistic feeling for the character of the various plant types and knew how to use his brush to give them great beauty of form, whereas in terms of mood he was less interesting. His superior and formally elegant assurance in the treatment, and the magni fi cence of his conception, gave him great influence on the subsequent generation of land scape painters. 16 Later Lange mentions Rump, who in fact has [...] a more many-faceted and poetic conception than Skovgaard ; that is, he can hardly refrain from writing that he likes Rump rather better. 17 Finally, Vilhelm Kyhn (1818 1903), who is not mentioned in Lange s early text, was [...] in the ability to find and draw out distinctive subjects, the most original and most national of them all [...]. 18 This four-leaf clover Lundbye, Skovgaard, Rump and Kyhn also appears as a group in Lange s addition on Nordic art to his translation of Lübke s Grundriss der Kunst geschichte (Kunsthistorien. Frem stillet i dens Hovedtræk, 1881). 19 In both places the next artist in the succession is only mentioned by name, that is, in Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon as the land scape painter C.A. Kølle (1827 1872), 20 and in the Lübke overview as the equally anonymous C.A. Kølle and others. 21 Kølle is not mentioned at all in Lange s 1866 article. As a starting point for the later texts it is worth mentioning that in his later article Lange may well have moderated the importance of Skovgaard to the breakthrough of Danish landscape painting a little compared with the early text s rather high-flown rheto ric, but Skovgaard still retains his influence on the later generations, just as he will in later articles. In addition, Lange first and foremost places Skovgaard alongside Lund bye and formulates the contrast between the close Skovgaard and the distant Lund bye, but he also mentions Rump less well known today in both texts and even has difficulty not writing that Rump at times stands taller than Skovgaard in his conception of nature. 6

a distinctive insight into the national in landscapes? The criteria for this assessment are very much an extension of Lange s under standing of art as he formulated it in two lectures which were published as Om Kunstværdi (On Artistic Value, 1876). Here it is first and foremost the emphasis on the relationship between creator and subject that is crucial. In his slightly moderated form in the second lecture, Lange defined the value of art as [...] the value that the subject has had for the creator, the same value that the subject, through his representation of it, again takes on for us. 22 In his text on Lange in Dansk Biografisk Lexikon (Dictionary of National Biography) the literature professor Valdemar Vedel (1862 1942), who was close to Lange as a young man, sees this view of artistic value as something decidedly new in the movement away from Høyen s nationality requirement. 23 However, as already suggested, this also makes it difficult for later writers to look impartially at Skovgaard s works with subjects from abroad, or to allow that non-danish landscape influenced the artist; and within this frame of thought there is a good reason for this. Although Lange does not use landscape painting as an example in his two lectures on artistic value, in 1879 they are followed by the lecture Vor Kunst og Udlandets (Our Art and Foreign Art). 24 Here we can read that Lange is [...] sincerely convinced that the best that our painters of the natural landscape, of animal life or even of human life in connection with nature our painters of real life on the whole could do would be to remain at home and not think of anything else but home... 25 He argues for this among other ways by saying that it [...] is generally acknowledged that those of the old Dutch landscape painters who remained at home and kept faithfully to its representation produced pictures that much more thoroughly captivate and fill the minds of later generations than their countrymen who went to Italy and painted the land scapes of the south. 26 Compared with the reference to the Dutch artists in the early article, it would appear after all that not all of them had such an ineffably fine feeling for nature. The artist s perception of his subject is crucial to the way it is rendered, and Skovgaard in fact has a close relationship with the Danish landscape in particular, as in the above-quoted passages on the importance of his upbringing close to the North Zealand landscape. 27 I will not follow this further, but simply suggest at this point that such a logic is also a logic of exclusion, requiring that one must be Danish to paint Danish landscapes. 7

hans dam christensen Skovgaard and the others Looking at the other surveys from these years and the subsequent period, one notes that in the time between Lange s early article and the later entry in Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon, the school teacher and later principal Sigurd Müller (1844 1918) with close ties to Danish art, in among other roles as critic and author of small articles in the newspaper Dagbladet wrote two overview texts on Skovgaard, one in his illustrated work Nyere Dansk Malerkunst (Recent Danish Painting) from 1884, and one in Dansk Biografisk Lexikon (1888; 1887 1905). In the latter, partly on the basis of Lange s early text, Skovgaard is characterized as being known to all as the grand master of the older generation of landscape painters. He was a national artist in the most pre-eminent sense of this word, and as stated before it is indeed only our own Danish landscape that he has interpreted with full mastery. This evaluation, which includes an only, can on the one hand be viewed on the face of it as negative that is, that Skovgaard had his limitations but can also be seen as positive in the light of Lange s definition of artistic value: Skovgaard had grown from the Danish soil with his youth in Vejby, and with the organic relationship between upbringing and surroundings that is interpreted by the artistic mind; indeed the lesser studies from the late journeys abroad justify this very argument. In the later Nordens Billedkunst (Northern Visual Arts, 1920), the same Müller, like Lange, mentions the foursome Skovgaard, Lundbye, Rump and Kyhn as the masters of Høyenesque landscape art. 28 In the period 1901 1907 the art historian Karl Madsen (1855 1938), who became the director of the Danish national gallery, Statens Museum for Kunst, in 1911, edited Kunstens Historie i Denmark (The History of Art in Denmark) which was published in fascicles as a supplement to the periodical Kunstbladet (The Art Paper). Besides Madsen himself the work has prominent names among its contributors, including Francis Beckett (1868 1943), later to become a docent at the University of Copenhagen, and Emil Hannover (1864 1923), who became director of the Danish Museum of Applied Arts, as well as of The Hirschsprung Collection. 29 Karl Madsen wrote two chapters, Eckersberg and his School and National Art. The latter took its point of departure in the significance of Høyen in ensuring that the art of the age [...] strove to become popular and national, chose domestic subjects, represented the landscape, folk life, history, mythology and legends of Denmark, and supported its ren di tions of the people and events of bygone times by studying the character and life of the Danish common people. 30 8

a distinctive insight into the national in landscapes? In this account Lundbye, about whom Madsen had published the first extensive work a few years earlier, 31 appears as a sensitive repre sentative of the type who may well have been faithful to the character of the Danish landscape, although he did not aim at a mirror-image of it, but first and foremost cultivated the art of recollection. Madsen refers here to Lange s article, The Study in the Field. The Picture. The Art of Recollection (1889), where the superiority of the finished works is emphasized, among other reasons to polemicize against the increasing importance of Impressionism to the deve lop ment of art. 32 After Høyen s lecture famous in the Danish context of 1844, in which the potential national quali ties of the genre painting were strongly emphasized, 33 Lundbye, according to Mad sen, brooded over the future prospects of Danish landscape art and pointed especially to Skovgaard and Dankvart Dreyer, who had been mentioned briefly in Lange s early narrative. After a quick review of Dreyer, Madsen concludes that [...] he became but the sketch for a great landscape painter, who could not tolerate adversity and died young. 34 Skovgaard, on the other hand, became the supreme master of the national landscape art. Like Lange, but this time drawing on statements made by Lundbye, Mad sen grants Skovgaard the important advantage [...] of being fully familiar with the countryside and life in the countryside. 35 At many points Madsen repeats Lange s description of Skovgaard s youth in Vejby as well as his path to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copen hagen, where he meets Dreyer, Lundbye and Rump. He also singles out the painting View towards Frederiksværk from Tisvilde Wood from 1839 (1), which has a poetical-romantical atmosphere that recalls Ruisdael, and the 1842 picture Oak Trees in Nordskoven near Jægerspris (2). The latter is [...] one of his very best paintings, genuinely and distinctively Skovgaardian in the fine conception and assured rendering of all the flowing beauty of the individual forms in the lush fullness of the Danish summer and under the clear light of the Danish summer day. 36 Like Lange, he thus emphasizes the artist s conception of the subject. And Madsen again cedes the floor to Lundbye: (1): View of Frederiksværk from Tisvilde Wood, North Zealand, 1839. Statens Museum for Kunst (2): Oak Trees in Nordskoven near Jægerspris, Zealand, 1843. Statens Museum for Kunst What Skovgaard represents best and has lived his way into with the greatest affection is plant life, all the way from the great tree to the fine little grass plant. In the forest land scape he is at home, and naturally renders the character of our forests, and I know of none of our painters who is a match for him in this. The author does however add, like Lange, that the larger pictures of a characterful terrain (by which he means cliffs, rivulets, meadows etc.) must be mentioned. In parti cular, though, it is the small studies that 9

hans dam christensen appeal to Madsen rather than the large land scape pictures, which do not possess the quite enchanting lightness of spirit of Skov gaard s brush, nor do they have an exquisitely harmonious beauty in the colour tones. Madsen grants considerably more importance than Lange to an assess ment of the formalistic features to be found mainly in studies and sketches, although the relationship with the subject is still present. Madsen s more modern view is quite in keeping with his contemporary affinity with the open-air painting of the so-called Skagen Painters, although he acknowledges that Skovgaard would not have taken on his importance as a landscape painter by virtue of the studies alone. Like Lange, he further mentions Claude Lorrain as the most important of the older masters, but without distinguishing, like Lange, between before and after the journey outside Denmark in 1854, during which, as Lange points out, Skovgaard first saw Lorrain s works. According to Mad sen, Skovgaard has [...] often aspired to transfer something of the monumental in Claude s pictures to his own depictions of the beauty of the country that stands by the wide waves [here Madsen is paraphrasing the Danish national anthem] and is demarcated by the deep blue waves of the salt sea. 37 Madsen further broaches the possibility that Skovgaard executed beauti ful studies and pictures with Italian subjects, but it must be emphasized that they are only of very subordinate importance [my italics] in the overall oeuvre. 38 For Karl Madsen, Skovgaard is not alone in being the Danish landscape painter. Although the contemporary Vilhelm Kyhn for example does not have Skovgaard s technical qualities or superior assurance in drawing, he has a freshness, depth and strength in his perception of nature that banishes his shortcomings to the shadows: He was the greatest painter of moods that Danish landscape art has had so far. 39 Next to Skovgaard and Kyhn stands Rump. For Madsen, Rump for example has a better sense of colour than Skovgaard. Rump is therefore also given his own independent treatment in Madsen s chapter. C.A. Kølle and Dalgas, mentioned by Lange, are also mentioned by Madsen, but in a very short passage along with artists like Frederik Kraft (1823 1854) and Thorald Brendstrup (1812 1883). Kunstens Historie i Denmark (The History of Art in Denmark), in which the chapter in question is to be found, has as we have seen a chapter on Eckersberg and his school just before this one, and this is what established the term the Eckersberg School as applied to Danish Golden Age artists like Christen Købke (1810 1848), Constantin Hansen (1804 1880), Jørgen Roed (1808 1888) and Wilhelm Marstrand (1810 1873), but in Madsen s chapter it is also applied to others more neglected today such as Fritz Petzholdt (1803 1838) and Adam Müller (1811 1844). 10

a distinctive insight into the national in landscapes? In this context it is therefore relevant to note that all the landscape painters mentioned earlier did not belong to this school but insofar as they did receive instruction were in fact pupils of Eckersberg s professo rial colleague at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, J.L. Lund. Concurrently with Karl Madsen s survey of the history of art in Denmark, Charles A. Been (1869 1914) published a series of booklets on Danish painting with introductions by Emil Hannover, who also contributed to Madsen s work, and biographical overviews written by Been himself with a view to a broad popular presentation. They were published toge ther as Danmarks Malerkunst. Billeder og Biografier samlede af Ch. A. Been (Danish Painting. Pictures and Biographies collected by Ch. A. Been, 1905). 40 In this work, which in its gathered form is divided in two, Skovgaard and Lundbye appear together as landscape painters in the second half, separated from the Eckersberg pupils in the first half, which was presumably again a result of Høyen s influence on both and their non-membership of the Eckersberg School. As with Madsen, Hannover uses the enthu sias tic recorder Lundbye to characterize Skovgaard, even with the same quota tion as before, 41 and as with Lange we find a contrasting of the two. This concerns the contrast between the distant and the close, here also supplemented with yet another contrast: that one Lundbye was a man of mood, the other Skovgaard a man of rea son. Lundbye lets himself be suffused by nature, while Skovgaard actively pene trates nature. The latter [...] explored it from every angle with his gaze and by that path came into possession of its mysteries. It accords with this that he first sought out a spot, unlike Lundbye, who preferred to scan an area. It further accords with it that he frequently missed the aspect of nature unregistrable by the eye, that lies in the air, and addresses senses other than that of vision. In purely painterly terms too his mastery of the air was weaker than his mastery of the earth. 42 Hannover further remarks that Skovgaard s tendency to represent the magnificent speci mens in the landscape meant that trees and plants often seem tended and cultiva ted instead of being left to themselves: A few of his forest views look more like park views. This assessment can be read in the light of Lange s point that Skovgaard was a landscape painter who sought out the contemporary cultural landscape, whereas Hanno ver expects something different. Like Madsen, Hannover emphasizes the studies [...] which as paintings are almost always better than his pictures ; that is, there is still the same distinction between real pictures and the others for which Lange has argued, even though the 11

hans dam christensen distinction has begun to collapse. He also briefly remarks on Skov gaard s ability as a portrait painter, as well as a genre painter and set designer. As with other writers, including Lange, these remarks always follow towards the end, although these abilities were not unimportant to Skovgaard s work. 43 In conclusion, Hannover also points to the aging Skovgaard s obvious influence from Claude Lorrain and Herman van Swanenwelt (1603 1655): [...] and no one yet has more worthily appeared to adopt the grand style that he thus introduced into our landscape art. It should also be mentioned that in the process Hannover too mentions a four-leafed clover that brought good fortune to landscape art in this country. Besides Lund bye, Skovgaard and Kyhn, Rump is once more counted among the four. They are fol lowed briefly by a number of names (Dalgas, Dreyer, Kraft, Kølle and others). Skovgaard for the people For a couple of decades Kunstens Historie i Danmark (1901 06) stood as the major work on the history of Danish art. 44 Before the next major survey, Danmarks Malerkunst fra Middelalder til Nutid (Danish Painting from the Middle Ages to the Present, 1937), edited by Erik Zahle, also with contributions from leading Danish art historians, 45 a smaller volume was published with a rather different pro file. In 1924 AOF, Arbejdernes Oplysningsforbund (the Workers Educational Associ ation) was founded in order to give workers insight into social conditions and culture, and from the beginning of the 1930s the AOF Book Circle, with the publisher Fremad, published inexpensive books, including Preben Wilmann s Dansk Kunst (Danish Art, 1934). 46 This book was part of a political enlightenment project. Preben Wilmann (1901 1979), the son of one of the founders of the Danish Social Democrat Party, the member of parliament Johan Wilmann, who was a contemporary of the first Social Democrat Prime Minister, Th. Stauning, was part of the Danish Cultural-Radical movement; later he became editor-in-chief of the newspaper Social-demokraten. Dansk Kunst was thus written by an author with something on his mind, and it is easy enough to grasp the message. Wilmann writes among other things in his foreword that the aim is to give the working popu lation an understanding [...] that art is no longer simply a stimulant for a minority of the propertied class, but that through it the working population has the opportunity to wit ness a number of cultural benefits that can bring happiness and strength in the struggle for existence. 47 12

a distinctive insight into the national in landscapes? To stress the author s critical approach it can also be mentioned that according to him depictions of the common people by Danish painters such as Frederik Vermehren (1823 1910), Christen Dalsgaard (1824 1907) and Julius Exner (1825 1910) lack true understanding of the conditions of the commonalty, because these genre painters were up to their necks in the city-based National-Liberal bourgeoisie. Their works therefore became tourist paintings, viewed from above downwards. 48 In other words, the perspective is rather different from Fremtiden s Nytaarsgave from 1866. Skovgaard s name appears in the chapter Høyen s National Battle Cry, 49 which gives it a rather different twist from Madsen s The National School. The point is that Høyen s formulation of the artistic goals in his 1844 lecture leads to painting that is national in the narrowest sense. The best of the painters who were caught up in his thinking P.C. Skovgaard, Johan Thomas Lundbye, Dankvart Dreyer and Vilhelm Kyhn chose to depict the hitherto neglected open Danish landscape not least under its idyllic aspect and thus brought fresh blood to the art of painting. 50 One notes that Rump is not mentioned. More specific reflections follow in the chapter The Landscape School. 51 Here it is emphasized that this school is least dependent on the influence of Høyen when it embarks on a Romantic path. Skov gaard is the first to be mentioned: In the forest pictures of P.C. Skovgaard (1817 1875) there is a new, energetic tone of growth. The very fact that he increases the formats substantially from the extremely diminutive draw ingroom pictures, suggests a more headlong rush of the emotions, from which one should however hardly derive any general rule. 52 It might be suggested that Hannover s distinction between the man of reason Skovgaard and the man of moods Lundbye is being challenged here, but other contrasts endure: Lundbye seeks out the open countryside, whereas Skovgaard looks for forest landscape, as we know already from Lange s first account. This is followed by a descrip tion of Skovgaard which is hard not to view today in the light of Freud s psycho analysis, which Wilmann s contemporary Cultural Radicals such as the prominent authors Poul Henningsen and Otto Gelsted read with interest in this period. At any rate what follows is a rather unusual analysis of Skovgaard s interest in tall trees. For the artist is 13

hans dam christensen [...] one of the most masculine types in the history of Danish art, judging from the sim pli city and sensitivity of his mind, and the great firmness in his pictorial composition. With him the Danish beech forest with its columnar trunks, its cool lushness, its dark-green light and its loftiness found its first explorer and lover in the art of painting. The erectness of the trees and their sap-bursting penetration of the space constantly fill him with joy and wonder. He never tires of capturing the intimacy and might of the forest scene. 53 However, behind Wilmann s other aims, Lange s view of the artistic value still shines through. There is still a close connection between representation and the meaning of the subject for the painter: The same intensity in his view of nature recurs throughout his pictures. His art does not have many facets, but through those that it does have there gleams a strong, calm and clear light. Skovgaard was one with the ordinary Dane. He grew up in Vejby, north of the vast Grib Forest, in a humble and spiritually awakened home. In religious re spects he was a Grundtvigian, and it was therefore quite natural to him that Høyen s demand for a national art unleashed an urge in him to depict something typically Danish on the basis of the domestic tradition. 54 In other words Skovgaard did not become national because he responded to Høyen s battle-cry, but because circumstances like his youth in contact with nature, his humble origins and a Grundtvigian temperament had already left their imprint on him; he was pre disposed to becoming a national landscape painter. Wilmann thus explains Skov gaard s national approach but cannot relate uncritically to the general limitations of the national, and adds, with Skovgaard as an important exception: Painting was unwilling to have anything to do with the world outside, and this self-sufficiency led to crude and reactionary results in the art of the mediocre talents and the nonentities. For a personality as unassailable in the artistic and ideal sense as Skov gaard, this seclusion also involved a valuable element. 55 Although Wilmann, as mentioned, defined a new foursome Skovgaard, Lundbye, Dankvart Dreyer and Vilhelm Kyhn Rump and Janus la Cour (1837 1909) are also mentioned, as well as Godtfred Christensen (1845 1928) without accompanying illustrations as three sober and able por- 14

a distinctive insight into the national in landscapes? trayers of the idyllic side of nature. These are, according to Wilmann, followed by people who rather uncritically and obtusely perpetuated the idyll. Wilmann asserts that the landscape painters are most independent when they embark on the Romantic course. In the chapter Romanticism in the above-men tioned Danmarks Malerkunst (1937) the author, Henrik Bramsen (1908 2002), then the art history librarian, later the head librarian at the Library of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, presents these landscape painters. 56 In the succession of landscape painters we first read at length of J.Th. Lundbye and Dankvart Dreyer, before Skovgaard is presen ted after an interlude that includes minor mention of Kyhn and Rump. Bramsen s presentation refers to Lange s treatment of Skovgaard s gallery pictures, but other wise it is unorthodox in the sense that Lundbye and Skovgaard are not contrasted, nor are Skovgaard s upbringing and intimate relationship with the surrounding landscape brought up. Bramsen s account is on the other hand highly formalistic with an emphasis on Skovgaard s work with composition, the play of light and shade, pre cur sors in the history of art, and texture. Precisely the shortcomings in the last of these elements make it difficult for the artist to assert himself in international company. Skov gaard s journeys abroad are also mentioned: on the first he primarily studied older painting; from the second he brought home several valuable works, but the dark tone was only partially overcome. 57 In Bramsen s slightly earlier Landskabsmaleriet i Danmark. Stilhistoriske Hoved træk (Landscape Painting in Denmark. Outline of its Style History, 1935) the 1937 account is anticipated in almost similar terms, but with the clarification that Skovgaard, Kyhn and Rump became the leading figures in the next period, that is 1850 1875. 58 This next part begins with an extended presentation of Skovgaard, followed by a corresponding one of Rump and Kyhn. Although Bramsen is critical, not least of the later Rump, [...] at all events Rump s influence on the younger artists was great, and hardly less than Skovgaard s. 59 If we compare the young Bramsen s view of Skovgaard with that of the slightly older Bramsen, writing in Dansk Kunst fra Rokoko til Vore Dage (Danish Art from Rococo to the Present Day, 1943), 60 it is first and foremost (again) Lundbye, who in the chapter Landscape painting holds the interest of the author, and then (again) Dankvart Dreyer, but all three Lundbye, Dreyer and Skovgaard are called the most significant landscape painters of that age. 61 In addition the Golden Age artist Constantin Hansen is held up as the one who was of the greatest importance to Skovgaard because of a turn from more modest pictures 15

hans dam christensen to a grand style. The linkage is interesting in the light of the two artists close ties of friend ship. 62 The contrast between Skovgaard and Lundbye is however found again: Skov gaard [...] quickly became aware of the limits of his talent and did not seek to trans cend them with the fervent, desperate zeal that made Lundbye s artistic career so labile and uneven. Hannover s man of reason and man of emotion live on. Perhaps with inspi ration from Wilmann s perspective or simply under the influence of a sociological approach in parts of art history abroad, Bramsen concludes along the way that Skovgaard [...] became a useful member of society who could supply large landscapes to order without compromising with his conscience. In contrast to Bramsen s early texts, the issue of the national now looms larger. Perhaps once more with inspiration from Wilmann, Bramsen speaks of the national battle-cry, with which Skovgaard remains compliant : It was Høyen s will that pre vailed, and he thought not only that it was sufficient for a painter to put his shoulder to the wheel in Denmark; but also that it would be directly harmful to travel abroad. Although Bramsen further writes that this was a quite untenable theory, which was also soon abandoned, it is also to be found, as we have seen, in Lange s work; indeed it has actually been argued above that the view is a consequence of Lange s concept of the artistic value. The same Lange also rears his head when Bramsen underscores that the feeling of the direct experience of nature became weaker, a black deadness tended to spread through the pictures, which was why Skovgaard had to go to Italy again not that this (cf. the early Bramsen) helped substantially. After the review of Skovgaard Bramsen concludes with a brief account of Vilhelm Kyhn, but Rump and others are not men tioned. The Golden Age painter P.C. Skovgaard It has not been claimed that Lange s early account of Skov gaard from 1866 can be glimpsed every time a new survey article or book appears. But in various ways there are traces that become evident and are perhaps erased, perhaps take a new form. Two things, however, are particularly notable: first and foremost Lange s account of the close relationship between Skovgaard s youth in the landscape of nor thern Zealand and his ability to depict it as his subject later. Here we have the basis of Lange s well known understanding of artistic value, although he himself does not explicitly assert it in this context, but later, in the lecture Our Art 16

a distinctive insight into the national in landscapes? and Foreign Art, emphasizes the benefit of staying at home in order to depict one s subject as well as possible. Next, it is worth noting how much Skovgaard is presented as a national land scape painter from what we today call the Danish Golden Age. So is Lundbye, but he is also so much more. One could perhaps claim that Skovgaard is presented in this way such that he gradually more or less ousts several of his landscape-painting contempo raries and colleagues from the period and in later cases even sometimes pushes them into the time after the Golden Age. When the Eckersberg School fused with the Høyen School in the course of the art historiography of the twentieth century, there arose this new alloy, The Golden Age, in which some artists from both sides were no longer visible in the same manner or present at all, while others were canonized. From the Eckersberg School, for example, the earlier-mentioned Petzholdt and Müller disappeared, and from the Høyen School, indeed, only Skov gaard and Lundbye were really left. In a much later work like Politikens Forlag s fivevolume Dansk Kunsthistorie (Danish Art History) from the first part of the 1970s, Skovgaard has for example been detached from his colleague of the Academy years, the one-year-older Godtfred Rump, as well as his other contemporary Vilhelm Kyhn. Only Skovgaard appears in volume three, on The Academy and the Golden Age, 1750 1850, while the two others, without being seen as more modern painters, appear in volume four, Open-air studies and depictions of reality, 1850 1900. 63 In Kasper Monrad s doctoral dissertation Hverdagsbilleder. Dansk Guldalder Kunstnerne og deres vilkår (Everyday Pictures. Danish Golden Age The Artists and their Circumstances, 1989) Rump is mentioned just twice, and each time in a list (respectively of J.L. Lund s pupils and of Paintings by Golden Age artists purchased in the Golden Age itself ), 64 while Kyhn is given a little more space as well as two illustrations and an independent bio graphy. In a last, very popular Danish survey book, Hans Edvard Nørregård-Nielsen s Dansk Kunst (Danish Art, 1983), Rump is not mentioned at all, while Kyhn is put in the chapter on the browns that is, among the artists who came after the Golden Age; 65 in fact the end of the Golden Age is situated in Skovgaard s empty park from Nysø (1865). 66 This author also has reservations about the Italian studies, where he sees Skovgaard as simply being confirmed in his view of art. 67 To sum up, one can say that the original four-leafed clover of Lundbye, Skov gaard, Rump and Kyhn lost some of its leaves. Rump became invisible, Kyhn s status still ebbs and flows, and Dreyer has become visible in survey books and exhibitions. 68 And Skovgaard has been separated from the close relationship. For better or worse, Skov gaard s 17

hans dam christensen fig. 1. P.C. Skovgaard, A Beech Wood in May near Iselingen Manor, Zealand, 1857. Oil on canvas, 189.5 158.5 cm. Statens Museum for Kunst/National Gallery of Denmark, www.smk.dk (Google Art Project) art today represents a distinctive insight into the national in Danish landscapes, and this (and not least its verbalization) thrives so well that it can also be seen on the cover of volume 2, A Lovely Land, 1789 1848 in the many-volume Dansk identitetshistorie (The History of Danish Identity, 1991). 69 The cover is graced with A Beech Wood in May near Iselingen Manor, Zealand (fig. 1), although this work was not finished until 1857 in fact shortly after Skovgaard s first journey to Italy. Wouldn t an earlier landscape painting, perhaps even one by Rump, have been more apt? 18

a distinctive insight into the national in landscapes? Notes 1. It is also tempting for example to discuss the ideological implications of the survey work in terms of both an understanding (perhaps too obviously) of national identity and, perhaps less obviously at first, gender and Eurocentrism. See for example Elkins, James, Stories of Art, Routledge, London, 2002. 2. For a discussion of early survey books, see Karlholm, Dan, Handböckernas konsthistoria. Om skapandet av allmän konsthistoria i Tyskland under 1800 talet Symposion, Stockholm, 1996. In addition, from as early as 1831 Høyen received a regular annual sum with a view to writing an overview work, but he left only a series of smaller articles. See Ussing, J.L., Niels Lauritz Høyens Levned, Copen hagen 1872, pp. 186ff. 3. A broad introduction to Julius Lange can be found in Dam Christensen, Hans, et al. (eds.), Viljen til det menneskelige Tekster omkring Julius Lange, Museum Tusculanum Forlag, Copenhagen 1999. 4. Lange, Julius, Landskabsmaleren P.C. Skovgaard, in Fremtidens Nytaarsgave, vol. 1, Copen hagen 1866 (in the present context reference is made to the reprint of the article by the same name in Lange, Nutids-Kunst. Skildringer og Karakteristiker, Copenhagen 1873, pp. 275 290). Later, Lange also mentions Skovgaard in Udsigt over Kunstens Historie i Danmark, in Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon IV, Copenhagen 1895 (in the present context reference is made to the reprint of the text by the same name in Lange, Udvalgte Skrifter af Julius Lange, vol. 1, Copenhagen 1900, pp. 1 88). Lange also writes in depth about Skovgaard in a third place: Skovgaards Billeder paa Verdensudstillingen i Paris 1878, in Lange, Billedkunst, Copenhagen 1884, pp. 450 458. 5. Signature (C.N.) R.B., Fremtiden, in Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon, VII, Copenhagen 1895. 6. Lange, Julius, Landskabsmaleren P.C. Skovgaard, p 278. 7. Lange, Julius, Landskabsmaleren P.C. Skovgaard, p. 279. 8. Lange, Julius, Landskabsmaleren P.C. Skovgaard, p. 280. 9. Lange, Julius, Landskabsmaleren P.C. Skovgaard, p. 284. 10. Lange, Julius, Landskabsmaleren P.C. Skovgaard, p. 288. 11. Lange, Julius, Landskabsmaleren P.C. Skovgaard, p. 288. 12. For Lange s bibliography see Nørgaard-Larsen, Peter, Bibliografi, in Dam Christensen, Hans et al. (eds.), Viljen til det menneskelige, pp. 305 320. 13. Lange, Julius, Udsigt over Kunstens Historie i Danmark, pp. 58 59. 14. Lange, Julius, Udsigt over Kunstens Historie i Danmark, p. 59. 15. Wiborg, K.F., Kritik over de ved Det kongelige Akademi for de skjønne Konster offentligt udstillede Malerier, Copenhagen 1838. 16. Lange, Julius, Udsigt over Kunstens Historie i Danmark, p. 59. 17. See also Lange, Julius, Gotfred Rump, in Ude og Hjemme III, 1880, pp. 361 362, repr. in Lange, Julius, Billedkunst. Skildringer og Studier fra Hjemmet og Udlandet, Copenhagen, 1884, pp. 437 442. 18. Lange, Julius, Udsigt over Kunstens Historie i Danmark, p. 59. 19. Lübke, Wilhelm, Kunsthistorien. Fremstillet i dens Hovedtræk (Omarbejdet i mange Partier, særlig med Hensyn til Kunsten i Norden af Julius Lange), Copenhagen, 1881, p. 825. 20. Lange, Julius, Udsigt over Kunstens Historie i Danmark, p. 60. 21. Lübke, Wilhelm, Kunsthistorien. Fremstillet i dens Hovedtræk, p. 825. 22. Lange, Julius, Om Kunstværdi. To Foredrag, Copenhagen, 1876, p. 65. 23. Vedel, Valdemar, Julius Lange, in Dansk Biografisk Lexikon, Copenhagen, 1887 1905, p. 35 19

hans dam christensen 24. Lange, Julius, Vor Kunst og Udlandets, Copenhagen, 1879. 25. Lange, Julius, Vor Kunst og Udlandets, p. 24. 26. Lange, Julius, Vor Kunst og Udlandets, p. 24. 27. A discussion would take us too far in this context, but for example in the literary New Criticism from the middle of the last century one finds an explicit critique of the possibility of reading such a mean ing into a work of art; cf. W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley s article The Intentional Fallacy, originally in Sewanee Review, vol. 54, 1946, where one can read among other things: the design or intention of the author is neither available nor desirable as a standard for judging the success of a work of literary art. In a more specifically art historical context E.H. Gombrich ironically uses the phrase the physiognomic fallacy first and foremost to describe Casper David Lavater s fallacy from the end of the eighteenth century, when he thought that one could read a person s character from that person s silhouette, but also to point to problems in among other works John Dewey s Art as Experi ence, 1958. Gombrich, E.H. On Physiognomic Perception (1960), in Gombrich, E.H., Meditations on a Hobby Horse and other Essays on the Theory of Art, Phaidon, London, 1963, pp. 45 55. 28. Müller, Sigurd, Nordens Billedkunst, Copenhagen, 1920, p. 114. 29. Henrik Bramsen calls it the authoritative History of art in Denmark ; cf. Bramsen, Henrik, Kunst i Enevældens sidste Århundrede sådan set, Copenhagen: Palle Fogtdal, 1990, p. 10. 30. Madsen, Karl, Den nationale Kunst, in Madsen, Karl (ed.), Kunstens Historie i Danmark, Copenhagen 1901 1907, p. 248. 31. Madsen, Karl, Johan Thomas Lundbye. 1818 1848, Copenhagen, 1895. 32. Lange, Julius, Studiet i Marken. Skilderiet. Erindringens Kunst (1889), in Brandes, G. and Købke, P. (eds.), Udvalgte Skrifter af Julius Lange, vol. III, Copenhagen, 1903, pp. 159 168. 33. Høyen, N.L., Om Betingelserne for en skandinavisk Nationalkonsts Udvikling (1844), in Ussing, J.L. (ed.), Niels Laurits Høyens Skrifter I-III. For discussion, see Christensen, Hans Dam, Billedkunsten. Om kunsthistorikeren N.L. Høyen og folkets billedkunst, in Christensen, Palle Ove (ed.), Veje til danskheden. Bidrag til den moderne nationale selvforståelse, Copenhagen 2005, pp. 66 94. 34. Madsen, Karl, Den nationale Kunst, p. 257. 35. Madsen, Karl, Den nationale Kunst, p. 257. 36. Madsen, Karl, Den nationale Kunst, p. 259.These are in fact two pictures that often feature in the accounts, partly because the former became the first Skovgaard work in public ownership, partly because Skovgaard received the Neuhausen Prize for the latter. 37. Madsen, Karl, Den nationale Kunst, p. 261. 38. Madsen, Karl, Den nationale Kunst, p. 264. 39. Madsen, Karl, Den nationale Kunst, p. 266. 40. Danmarks Malerkunst. Billeder og Biografier samlede af Ch. A. Been, Copenhagen, 1905. 41. Hannover, Emil, VI, in Been, Ch. A. (ed.), Danmarks Malerkunst. Billeder og Biografier samlede af Ch. A. Been og med Indledninger af Emil Hannover, Copenhagen 1905, p. 11. 42. Hannover, Emil, VI, p. 11. 43. See for example Gelfer-Jørgensen, Mirjam, Constantin Hansen og kunstindustrien, in Constantin Hansen 1804 1880, Thorvaldsens Museum / Aarhus Kunstmuseum, 1991, pp. 111 118, for the impor tance of P.C. Skovgaard s wife Georgia Skovgaard to the flourishing of embroidery art in the period, and the contribution of her husband as well as Constantin Hansen to it. 20

a distinctive insight into the national in landscapes? 44. Cf. for example Hans Lassen s review of Dansk Malerkunst fra Middelalder til Nutid, edited by Erik Zahle, 2nd ed., Copenhagen 1943, in Historisk Tidsskrift, vol. 11, series 1 (1944), 1. 45. Zahle. Erik (ed.), Danmarks Malerkunst. Fra Middelalder til Nutid, Copenhagen, 1937. 46. Wilmann, Preben, Dansk Kunst, Forlaget Fremad, Copenhagen, 1934, reprinted as: Dansk Kunst, Dansk Bib lioteks Forlag, Copenhagen, 1941. 47. Wilmann, Preben, Dansk Kunst, p. 6. 48. Wilmann, Preben, Dansk Kunst, pp. 52 53. 49. Wilmann, Preben, Dansk Kunst, pp. 50 53. 50. Wilmann, Preben, Dansk Kunst, p. 52. 51. Wilmann, Preben, Dansk Kunst, p. 53 65. 52. Wilmann, Preben, Dansk Kunst, p. 54. 53. Wilmann, Preben, Dansk Kunst, p. 54. 54. Wilmann, Preben, Dansk Kunst, p. 54. Grundtvigian refers to the Danish clergyman N.F.S. Grundtvig (1783 1872), whose ideas on for example participation in society, education and a modern Danish consciousness of national identity were institutionalized in the Danish folk high schools. 55. Wilmann, Preben, Dansk Kunst, pp. 54 55. 56. Bramsen, Henrik, Romantikken, in Zahle (ed.), Danmarks Malerkunst, pp. 155 184. 57. Bramsen, Henrik, Romantikken, p. 172. 58. Bramsen, Henrik, Landskabsmaleriet i Danmark. Stilhistoriske Hoved træk, Copenhagen 1935, p. 94. 59. Bramsen, Henrik, Landskabsmaleriet i Danmark. Stilhistoriske Hoved træk, p. 107 60. Bramsen, Henrik, Dansk Kunst fra Rokoko til vore Dage, H. Hirschsprungs Forlag, Copenhagen, 1942. It should be added that Bramsen also published Malerier af P.C. Skovgaard, Copenhagen, 1938, which is not considered in this context. 61. Bramsen, Henrik, Dansk Kunst fra Rokoko til vore Dage, p. 248. 62. Cf. for example Gelfer-Jørgensen, Constantin Hansen og kunstindustrien. 63. In Balslev Jørgensen, Lisbeth Vejen til det danske landskab, in Poulsen, Vagn et al. (eds.), Dansk Kunsthistorie vol. III, Politikens Forlag, Copenhagen, 1972, and Voss, Knud Friluftskildring og virkelighedsskildring 1850 1900, in Poulsen, Vagn et al. (eds.), Dansk Kunsthistorie, vol. IV, Politikens Forlag, Copenhagen, 1974. 64. Monrad, Kasper Hverdagsbilleder. Dansk Guldalder kunstnerne og deres vilkår, Christian Ejlers Forlag, Copenhagen, 1989, pp. 83 and 95 respectively. 65. Nørregård-Nielsen, Hans Edvard, Dansk kunst, vol. 1, Gyldendal, Copenhagen, 1983, pp. 244 245. 66. Nørregård-Nielsen, Hans Edvard, Dansk kunst, p. 234. 67. Nørregård-Nielsen, Hans Edvard, Dansk kunst, pp. 231 232. 68. In this context it would be going too far to speculate about why Rump for example has been writ ten out of the narrative. Erik Mortensen has already pointed to this invisibility in his article on Rump in Weilbach. Dansk Kunstnerleksikon (1994 2000), and he considers it understandable: In the painterly one notes a certain vagueness and indeterminacy, which can probably be traced back to his teacher J.L. Lund. On the other hand the less striking National- Romantic attitude in R. is a feature that links him partly with the landscape painters before National Romanticism, partly with the landscape painters of the 1870s. But this view was not widely shared at the end of the nineteenth century, nor to any great extent at the beginning of the next century. In this Rump belonged to the national school, 21

hans dam christensen so the artistic taste (and art history) of posterity can be said to have transformed the historical framework for under standing the significance of landscape painting in the first part of the nineteenth century, when it prima rily used Skovgaard, Lundbye and Dreyer as its point of departure. 69. Feldbæk, Ole (ed.), Dansk identitetshistorie, vols. 1 4, C.A. Reitzels forlag, Copenhagen, 1991. Litterature Balslev Jørgensen, Lisbeth Vejen til det danske landskab, in Poulsen, Vagn et al. (eds.), Dansk Kunsthistorie vol. III, Politikens Forlag, Copenhagen, 1972 Beardsley, Monroe and Wimsatt, W.K., The Intentional Fallacy, in Sewanee Review, vol. 54, 1946 Been, Ch. A. (ed.), Danmarks Malerkunst. Billeder og Biografier samlede af Ch. A. Been og med Indledninger af Emil Hannover, Copenhagen, 1905 Bramsen, Henrik, Landskabsmaleriet i Danmark 1750 1875. Stilhistoriske Hovedtræk, Copenhagen, 1935 Bramsen, Henrik, Romantikken, in Zahle, Erik (ed.), Danmarks Malerkunst. Fra Middel alder til Nutid, Copenhagen, 1937, pp. 155 184 Bramsen, Henrik, Malerier af P.C. Skovgaard, Copenhagen, 1938 Bramsen, Henrik, Dansk Kunst fra Rokoko til vore Dage, H. Hirschsprungs Forlag, Copenhagen, 1942 Bramsen, Henrik, Kunst i Enevældens sidste Århundrede sådan set, Copenhagen: Palle Fogtdal, 1990 (C.N.) R.B. [signature], Fremtiden, in Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon, VII, Copenhagen, 1895 Dam Christensen, Hans, et al. (eds.), Viljen til det menneskelige Tekster omkring Julius Lange, Museum Tusculanum Forlag, Copenhagen, 1999 Elkins, James, Stories of Art, Routledge, London, 2002 Feldbæk, Ole (ed.), Dansk identitetshistorie, vols. 1 4, C.A. Reitzels forlag, Copenhagen, 1991 Gelfer-Jørgensen, Mirjam, Constantin Hansen og kunstindustrien, in Constantin Hansen 1804 1880, Thorvaldsens Museum / Aarhus Kunstmuseum, 1991, pp. 111 118 Gombrich, E.H. On Physiognomic Perception (1960), in Gombrich, E.H., Medita ti ons on a Hobby Horse and other Essays on the Theory of Art, Phaidon, London, 1963, pp. 45 55 Karlholm, Dan, Handböckernas konsthistoria. Om skapandet av allmän konsthis toria i Tyskland under 1800 talet, Symposion, Stockholm, 1996 Lange, Julius, Landskabsmaleren P.C. Skovgaard, in Nutids-Kunst. Skildringer og Karakteristiker, Copenhagen 1873, pp. 275 290 (orig. Lange, Landskabsmaleren P.C. Skovgaard, in Fremtidens Nytaarsgave, vol. 1, Copenhagen 1866) Lange, Julius, Om Kunstværdi. To Foredrag, Copenhagen, 1876 Lange, Julius, Vor Kunst og Udlandets, Copenhagen, 1879 Lange, Julius, Skovgaards Billeder paa Verdensudstillingen i Paris 1878, in Lange, Billedkunst, Copenhagen 1884, pp. 450 458 Lange, Julius, Gotfred Rump, in Billedkunst. Skildringer og Studier fra Hjemmet og Udlandet, Copenhagen 1884, pp. 437 442 (orig. Lange, Gotfred Rump, in Ude og Hjemme III, 1880, pp. 361 362) 22

a distinctive insight into the national in landscapes? Lange, Julius, Udsigt over Kunstens Historie i Danmark, in Brandes, G. and Købke, P. (eds.), Udvalgte Skrifter af Julius Lange, vol. 1, Copenhagen 1900, pp. 1 88 (orig. Lange, Udsigt over Kunstens Historie i Danmark, in Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon IV, Copenhagen 1895) Lange, Julius, Studiet i Marken. Skilderiet. Erindringens Kunst (1889), in Brandes, G. and Købke, P. (eds.), Udvalgte Skrifter af Julius Lange, vol. III, Copenhagen, 1903, pp. 159 168 Lassen, Hans, [review] Dansk Malerkunst fra Middelalder til Nutid, ed. Erik Zahle, 2nd ed., Copenhagen 1943, in Historisk Tidsskrift, vol. 11, series 1 (1944) Lübke, Wilhelm, Kunsthistorien. Fremstillet i dens Hovedtræk (Omarbejdet i mange Partier, særlig med Hensyn til Kunsten i Norden af Julius Lange), Copenhagen, 1881 Madsen, Karl, Johan Thomas Lundbye. 1818 1848, Copenhagen, 1895 Madsen, Karl (ed.), Kunstens Historie i Danmark, Copenhagen, 1901 1907 Monrad, Kasper Hverdagsbilleder. Dansk Guldalder kunstnerne og deres vilkår, Christian Ejlers Forlag, Copenhagen, 1989 Mortensen, Erik, Rump, Godtfred, in Weilbach. Dansk Kunstnerleksikon, Copenhagen, 1994 2000 Müller, Sigurd, Nyere Dansk Malerkunst. Et Billedværk, Copenhagen, 1884 Müller, Sigurd, P.C. Skovgaard, in Dansk Biografisk Lexikon, Copenhagen 1888 Müller, Sigurd, Nordens Billedkunst, Copenhagen, 1920 Nørgaard-Larsen, Peter, Bibliografi, in Dam Christensen, Hans et al. (eds.), Viljen til det menneskelige, pp. 305 320 Nørregård-Nielsen, Hans Edvard, Dansk kunst, vol. 1, Gyldendal, Copenhagen, 1983 Ussing, J.L., Niels Lauritz Høyens Levned, Copenhagen, 1872 Vedel, Valdemar, Julius Lange, in Dansk Biografisk Lexikon, Copenhagen, 1887 1905 Voss, Knud Friluftskildring og virkelighedsskildring 1850 1900, in Poulsen, Vagn et al. (eds.), Dansk Kunsthistorie, vol. IV, Politikens Forlag, Copenhagen, 1974 Wiborg, K.F., Kritik over de ved Det kongelige Akademi for de skjønne Konster offent ligt udstillede Malerier, Copenhagen, 1838 Wilmann, Preben, Dansk Kunst, Forlaget Fremad, Copenhagen, 1934 Wilmann, Preben, Dansk Kunst, Dansk Biblioteks Forlag, Copenhagen, 1941 Zahle. Erik (ed.), Danmarks Malerkunst. Fra Middelalder til Nutid, Copenhagen, 1937 23

hans dam christensen this on-line publication P.C. Skovgaard The Danish Golden Age Reassessed is an English edition of P.C. Skovgaard Dansk guldalder revurderet Acta Jutlandica. Humanistisk Serie 2010/8 Fuglsang Kunstmuseum, Skovgaard Museet & Aarhus Universitetsforlag 2010 Editors: Gertrud Oelsner and Karina Lykke Grand Co-editor: Iben Overgaard Editor of P.C. Skovgaard The Danish Golden Age Reassessed Susanne Bangert Fuglsang Kunstmuseum & The Skovgaard Museum 2012 Cover image: P.C. Skovgaard, View across the Sea from Taleren. The Cliffs at Møn (detail). 1851 Oil on canvas, 114 141 cm. Private owner. Photo: Ole Akhøj Design: Carl-H.K. Zakrisson, Polytype P.C. Skovgaard Dansk guldalder revurderet Printed in Denmark 2010 issn 0065-1354 (Acta Jutlandica) issn 0901-0556 (Humanistisk Serie 2010/8) isbn 978-87-792-4556-0 Published as companion to the exhibition Wonderful Denmark: P.C. Skovgaard The Golden Age reasssessed (Danmark dejligst: P.C. Skovgaard guldalderen revurderet) fuglsang kunstmuseum 17th September 2010 2nd January 2011 Nystedvej 71 dk-4891 Toreby l. www.fuglsangkunstmuseum.dk the skovgaard museum 14th January 2011 8th May 2011 Domkirkestraede 2-4 dk-8800 Viborg www.skovgaardmuseet.dk Exhibition: Gertrud Oelsner, Karina Lykke Grand and Iben Overgaard 24