Christian Horneman (15 August 1765 – 7 March 1844) was a Danish

miniature A miniature is a small-scale reproduction, or a small version. It may refer to: * Portrait miniature, a miniature portrait painting * Miniature art, miniature painting, engraving and sculpture * Miniature (chess), a masterful chess game or probl ...

and pastels painter, mainly known for portraits. He was the father of the composer Emil Horneman and grandfather of C. F. E. Horneman, also a composer.

Biography

Horneman was born on 15 August 1765 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. He attended the

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts ( da, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - Billedkunst Skolerne) has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark. History The Royal Dan ...

from 1780, winning its small silver medal in 1785, and its large silver medal in 1786. In 1787 he went abroad to further his studies and it would take sixteen years before he returned to Denmark. He specialized in portrait miniatures. He experienced the outbreak of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

first hand in Paris in 1789. He also visited Italy and Vienna, where

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, known as the ''Goethe Tischbein'' (15 February 1751 in Haina – 26 February 1829 in Eutin), was a German painter from the Tischbein family of artists. Biography Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein was born on ...

and

Heinrich Füger Heinrich Friedrich Füger (8 December 1751, in Heilbronn – 5 November 1818, in Vienna) was a German classicist portrait and historical painter. Biography Füger was a pupil of Nicolas Guibal in Stuttgart and of Adam Friedrich Oeser in L ...

were among the artists who inspired him. In Berlin he learned a new technique, most likely from

Daniel Chodowiecki Daniel Niklaus Chodowiecki (16 October 1726 – 7 February 1801) was a German painter and printmaker of Huguenot and Polish ancestry, who is most famous as an etcher. He spent most of his life in Berlin, and became the director of the Berlin Acad ...

, which he often used in his later work. In 1803 Horneman returned to Denmark, and the following year he was appointed miniature painter to the Royal Danish County. In 1805 he became a member of the Academy, and in 1816 he was given free residency at Charlottenborg. He was made a professor in 1835. In his later years he suffered from poor health, and from 1840 onward he received an annual pension. He is buried at

Garnisons Cemetery Garrison Cemetery (Danish: Garnisons Kirkegård) is a cemetery in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was inaugurated in 1671 on a site just outside the Eastern City Gate, as a military cemetery complementing the naval Holmens Cemetery which had been inaugur ...

in Copenhagen.

Works

While abroad he had the opportunity to make portraits of a few of the leading figures of his day, including

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

(1802) and Joseph Haydn, while he made sketches of several others in a sketch book now kept at the Danish National Gallery. The portrait of Beethoven was painted in 1803 as a miniature. Beethoven was very fond of the result, possibly because he is very good looking in it compared to later representations, and sent it to , a school friend, in the hopes of reconciliation one year after the portrait was completed. After his return to Denmark he was one among several portrait painters who filled the void after the death of

Cornelius Høyer Cornelius Høyer (26 February 1771 – 2 June 1804) was a Danish painter, mainly known for his work in miniatures. Within his special trade, he was among the virtuosos of his day and won an international reputation. Early life and education ...

and Jens Juel. He made miniatures and particularly pastels which was the technique in which he did his best works. In the 1820s he also turned to

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

Gallery

File:Beethoven_Hornemann.jpg, Portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven, 1803 File:Herman Wedel Jarlsberg 1779-1840.jpg, Portrait of

Herman Wedel Jarlsberg Count Johan Caspar Herman Wedel Jarlsberg (21 September 1779 – 27 August 1840) was a Norwegian statesman and nobleman. He played an active role in the constitutional assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814 and was the first native Norwegian to hold th ...

, 1805 File:Friedrich Kuhlau.gif, Pastel of

Friedrich Kuhlau Friedrich Daniel Rudolf Kuhlau ( German; Danish sometimes ''Frederick Kulav'') (11 September 1786 – 12 March 1832) was a Danish pianist and composer during the late Classical and early Romantic periods. He was a central figure of the Dani ...

, 1828 File:Horneman Mayor von Schon.jpg, Portrait of Mayor von Schon, 1840

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Horneman, Christian Danish painters 1765 births 1844 deaths Artists from Copenhagen Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni

Biography

Works

Gallery

See also

References

External links