Polycarpus Godfred Berry Wildenradt Christensen (23 July 1845,

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 ...

- 15 November 1928, Copenhagen) was a Danish landscape painter.

Biography

Christensen was born Copenhagen, the son of Mads Christensen and Anna Kirstine Wissing. After a short time at the

Copenhagen Technical College Copenhagen Technical College (Danish: Københavns Tekniske Skole, KTS) is a school of secondary education in Copenhagen, Denmark. The school offers educational programmes within the technical sciences on a secondary level to post-primary youth, Hig ...

, he enrolled at 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 Dani ...

and studied there until 1867. He also took lessons from the landscape painter F.C. Kiærskou and, in 1865, was awarded the Neuhausen Prize (''De Neuhausenske Præmier'') for his painting ''A Freestanding Beechwood''. A trip to Paris in 1869 exposed him to the influence of the

Barbizon school The Barbizon school of painters were part of an art movement towards Realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870. It takes its name f ...

. Later, he would be regular guest at the Academy of

Vilhelm Kyhn Peter Vilhelm Carl Kyhn (March 30, 1819 – May 11, 1903) was a Danish landscape painter who belonged to the generation of national romantic painters immediately after the Danish Golden Age and before the Modern Breakthrough. Even though he outliv ...

. In 1870, the Academy awarded him the Sødring Prize (''Den Sødringske Opmuntringspræmie''), established in 1862 by the bequest of

Frederik Sødring Frederik Hansen Sødring (31 May 1809 – 18 April 1862) was a Danish landscape painter and founder of an endowment. Background Sødring was born in Aalborg, Denmark. He was the son of merchant Peder Hansen Sødring (d. 1839) and Ane Do ...

, (1809–1862) which he used to pursue his studies in

North Zealand North Zealand, also North Sealand ( da, Nordsjælland), refers to the northern part of the Danish island of Zealand which is not clearly defined but generally covers the area north of Copenhagen. The Danish tourist authorities have recently in ...

. The following year, he received the Neuhausen Prize again for one of the paintings he produced there: ''Landscape with Lush Foreground''. This honor resulted in a travel stipend from the Academy that enabled him to visit Germany and Italy, beginning in 1873. Upon his return in 1875, he held an exhibition of works he had created in

Capri Capri ( , ; ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town of Capri that is located on the island shares the name. It has been ...

and Rome. This was followed by trips to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...

, where he tried his hand at rendering mountainous landscapes. Later, in Denmark, he would create landscapes and seascapes. After 1880, he remained in Denmark. In 1881, he became a member of the Academy and, in 1882, married Johanne Louise Sødring (1854-1933), daughter of Christopher Hansen Sødring and Julie Weber Rosenkilde. He became a Titular Professor in 1888 and appointed

Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog The Order of the Dannebrog ( da, Dannebrogordenen) is a Danish order of chivalry instituted in 1671 by Christian V. Until 1808, membership in the order was limited to fifty members of noble or royal rank, who formed a single class known ...

in 1892.

References

External links

ArtNet: More works by Christensen.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christensen, Godfred Danish landscape painters 1845 births 1928 deaths Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni 19th-century Danish painters Danish male painters 20th-century Danish painters Painters from Copenhagen 19th-century Danish male artists 20th-century Danish male artists