Christian Albrecht Jensen (26 June 1792 – 13 July 1870) was a Danish

portrait painter Portrait Painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commission, for public and pr ...

who was active during the

Golden Age of Danish Painting The Danish Golden Age ( da, Den danske guldalder) covers a period of exceptional creative production in Denmark, especially during the first half of the 19th century.Kulturnet DanmarkGuide to the Danish Golden Age Although Copenhagen had suffered ...

in the first half of the 19th century. Painting more than 400 portraits over the course of his career, he depicted most of the leading figures of the Danish Golden Age, including the writer

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...

, the painter Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, the sculptor

Bertel Thorvaldsen Bertel Thorvaldsen (; 19 November 1770 – 24 March 1844) was a Danes, Danish and Icelanders, Icelandic Sculpture, sculptor medallist, medalist of international fame, who spent most of his life (1797–1838) in Italy. Thorvaldsen was born in ...

, the physicist

Hans Christian Ørsted Hans Christian Ørsted ( , ; often rendered Oersted in English; 14 August 17779 March 1851) was a Danish physicist and chemist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields, which was the first connection found between electricity ...

and the theologian

N. F. S. Grundtvig Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig (; 8 September 1783 – 2 September 1872), most often referred to as N. F. S. Grundtvig, was a Danish pastor, author, poet, philosopher, historian, teacher and politician. He was one of the most influential peo ...

. Although Jensen experienced considerable commercial success, he received little official appreciation from the artistic establishment of his day. In particular, the art historian and critic

Niels Lauritz Høyen Niels is a male given name, equivalent to Nicholas, which is common in Denmark, Belgium, Norway (formerly) and the Netherlands. The Norwegian and Swedish variant is Nils. The name is a developed short form of Nicholas or Greek Nicolaos after Saint ...

criticized his style, finding his paintings 'unfinished'.

Early life and education

Jensen was born at

Bredstedt Bredstedt ( nds, Bredstedt; da, Bredsted; North Frisian: ''Bräist'', ) is a town in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated near the North Sea coast, approximately 20 km northwest of Husum. Notable pe ...

Nordfriesland Nordfriesland (; da, Nordfrisland; frr, Nordfraschlönj ), also known as North Frisia, is the northernmost district of Germany, part of the state of Schleswig-Holstein. It includes almost all of traditional North Frisia (with the exception o ...

. From 1810 to 1816, he attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen where he studied under

Christian August Lorentzen Christian August Lorentzen (10 August 1749 – 8 May 1828) was a Danish painter. Early life and education Christian August Lorentzen was born in Sønderborg, Denmark. He was the son of Hans Peter Lorentzen and Maria Christina Hansdatter. His ...

. From 1817 to 1818, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden.

Time abroad

In 1818, he traveled to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

by way of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

and

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. When he arrived, he joined the large colony of Danish-German artists' who lived in the city at the time and also met the sculptor

. During his years in Rome, Jensen painted small, informal portraits of many of his fellow artists, including the writer Bernhard Severin Ingemann who visited Rome from 1818 to 1819, and the sculptor Hermann Ernst Freund, Thorvaldsen's closest associate from 1818 to 1828. After leaving Rome, he made an unsuccessful attempt to establish himself as a portrait painter in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Success and criticism

Back in Copenhagen in the winter of 1822/23, the portrait scene was dominated by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg's sober, Neoclassical style, yet Jensen's more psychological portraits won immediate popularity. Up through the 1820s, he portrayed a large number of prominent members of Danish society but in spite of his commercial success he received little appreciation from art critics or from the establishment at the Academy and when a professorial chair became vacant after

died in 1828 he was passed by. After 1830, commissions dwindled and he experienced financial difficulties. In response, he started collaborating with the historical collections at Frederiksborg Castle, painting both copies of older pictures and originals. This led to a controversy with

, an influential art historian and critic who, from the beginning, had been critical of his style, finding his pictures 'unfinished'. From 1837, he increasingly looked to other countries for customers. By the Pulkovo Observatory, which opened near

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, he was commissioned to paint 11 portraits of leading international scientists. His painting of Carl Friedrich Gauss from that series remains the most famous portrait of the mathematician. Other portrayed scientists included the astronomer Wilhelm von Struve.

Late life

The 1840s brought a further decline in orders, prompted by his political views which were not in line with the

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

tendencies at the time as well as by continued criticism from Høyen. Eventually, after completing more than 400 portraits, he stopped painting. His last two works, portraits of Andreas Christian Krog (1854) and the theologian

Andreas Gottlob Rudelbach Andreas Gottlob Rudelbach (29 September 1792 - 3 March 1862) was a Dano-German neo-Lutheran theologian. Biography He was born at Copenhagen; died at Slagelse, Zealand. He was educated the Metropolitanskolen and attended the University of Copen ...

, are considered to be among his best. For the remainder of his life, he worked as an assistant at the Royal Print Collection and as a conservator, supplementing his income by selling paintings from his large art collection.

Gallery

File:Cathrine Jensen, født Lorenzen, kunstnerens hustru.jpg, ''Cathrine Jensen'' (the artist's wife), 1825 File:Birgitte Sobotker Hohlenberg.jpg, ''Birgitte Sobotker Hohlenberg'', 1826 File:Adam Oehlenschlaeger (1825 painting).jpg, '' Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger'', 1832 File:Maleren C.W. Eckersberg. (1832).jpg, '' Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg'', 1832 File:C.A. Jensen 1836 - HC Andersen.jpg, ''

'', 1836 File:N-f-s-grundtvig-portræt.jpg, ''

'', 1843 File:Christian Albrecht Jensen 001.jpg, ''

'', 1858

References