Martinus Christian Wesseltoft Rørbye (; 17 May 1803 – 29 August 1848) was a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

painter, known both for

genre work Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, work, and street scenes. Such representations (also called genre works, ...

s and landscapes. He was a central figure of 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 ...

during the first half of the 19th century. The most traveled of the Danish Golden Age painters, he traveled both north to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and south to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, Greece and

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

. He was also the first Danish painter to take to painting in Skagen at the northern top of

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

, almost half a century before the thriving community of

Skagen Painters The Skagen Painters ( da, Skagensmalerne) were a group of Scandinavian artists who gathered in the village of Skagen, the northernmost part of Denmark, from the late 1870s until the turn of the century. Skagen was a summer destination whose scen ...

formed and came to fame, through

Michael Ancher Michael Peter Ancher (9 June 1849 – 19 September 1927) was a Danish realist artist, and widely known for his paintings of fishermen, the lakes, and other scenes from the Danish fishing community in Skagen. Early life and education Michael ...

Anna Ancher Anna Ancher (18 August 1859 – 15 April 1935) was a Danish artist associated with the Skagen Painters, an artist colony on the northern point of Jylland, Denmark. She is considered to be one of Denmark's greatest visual artists. Background Ann ...

and

P.S. Krøyer PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Bro ...

Early life and education

Martinus Rørbye was born in Drammen in

on 17 May 1803 to Danish parents Ferdinand Henrik Rørbye and his wife Frederikke Eleonore Catherine de Stockfleth. Martinus was not inclined to schooling, but in 1820 started his studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts at 17 years of age. 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 ...

and Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, a strong influence on a generation of artists during the

Danish Golden Age 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 ...

. Rørbye was a favorite student of Eckersberg, and they formed a close association. He took to Eckersberg's careful attention to nature and his strivings to capture details realistically. He was also greatly influenced by Lorentzen's use of color. He won the Academy's small silver medal in 1824, and the large silver medal in 1828. He competed for the gold medal and won a cash prize. In 1829 he won the small gold medal for his painting ''Christ healing the blind'', which remains in the ownership of the Royal Danish Academy. He never won the large gold medal in spite of repeated attempts. ''View from the Artist's Window'', is a painting by a young Rørbye around 1825, heralding the many travels he would later make with its depiction of a caged bird in an open window, on the border between the safety of his parents' home and the wide, unknown world represented by a berthed ship.

Early career

Rørbye first exhibited his paintings at Charlottenborg in 1824 and would do so almost every year until 1848. His works were modestly priced, and he found sufficient buyers for his pieces. The majority of his works in the 1820s consisted of views from Copenhagen and the island of Zealand, although he also painted a number of portraits including one of Lorentzen, his painting instructor. Twice, in 1830 and 1832, he traveled to Norway. On the first of these journeys he visited

on the way, a rare destination for painters at that time. On 31 May 1830 he went to

Århus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

on the paddle steamer ''Dania''. Another passenger on the ship was

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 ...

and the two artists decided to travel together for a while. From Århus they went north, staying at the

Rosenholm Until 1 January 2007 Rosenholm municipality was a municipality (Danish, '' kommune'') in the former Aarhus County on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark just north of Aarhus and is more or less a suburb today. The municip ...

Clausholm Clausholm Castle is a large Danish country house located some 12 km southeast of Randers in eastern Jutland. It is one of Denmark's finest Baroque buildings. History The castle's origins appear to go back to the 12th century but it is first ...

and Tjele estates. After that, Rørbye and Andersen parted with Rørbye, continuing to the remote and seldom-visited Thy province of north-western Jutland to visit relatives in Thisted. From his journals it can be concluded that he found the place deeply exotic, making detailed sketches and notes of everything from women's costumes and markets to the scenery. However, he found the landscape unsuitable for painting due to the lack of trees. On 7 July he left Thisted bound for Norway. In Norway he painted

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

s under the influence of

Johan Christian Dahl Johan Christian Claussen Dahl (24 February 178814 October 1857), often known as or , was a Danish-Norwegian artist who is considered the first great romantic painter in Norway, the founder of the "golden age" of Norwegian painting, and, by some ...

and

Caspar David Friedrich Caspar David Friedrich (5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscape ...

Adventurous travels and later career

In 1834 Rørbye received a travel scholarship from the Academy on account of his talents as a

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

ist. He traveled by way of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and France to Rome, In Paris he met

Peter Andreas Heiberg Peter Andreas Heiberg (16 November 1758 – 30 April 1841) was a Danish-Norwegian author and philologist. He was born in Vordingborg, Denmark-Norway. The Heiberg ancestry can be traced back to Norway, and has produced a long line of priests, hea ...

August Bournonville August Bournonville (21 August 1805 – 30 November 1879) was a Danish ballet master and choreographer. He was the son of Antoine Bournonville, a dancer and choreographer trained under the French choreographer, Jean Georges Noverre, and the nep ...

and the French painter

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ...

. When he arrived in Rome, he joined the city's thriving Danish artists community which had

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 ...

as its central figure. ''

A Group of Danish Artists in Rome ''A Group of Danish Artists in Rome'' is an 1837 oil painting by the Danish Golden Age artist Constantin Hansen. The work depicts a group of Danish painters, architects, and other artists in a Rome, Roman hotel room; those painters depicted are ...

'', is a painting depicting the artist in Rome, painted by

Constantin Hansen Carl Christian Constantin Hansen (Constantin Hansen) (3 November 1804 – 29 March 1880) was one of the painters associated with the Golden Age of Danish Painting. He was deeply interested in literature and mythology, and inspired by art hist ...

. Rørbye is number two from the left sitting behind Bindesbøll who is lying on the floor with a

fez Fez most often refers to: * Fez (hat), a type of felt hat commonly worn in the Ottoman Empire * Fez, Morocco (or Fes), the second largest city of Morocco Fez or FEZ may also refer to: Media * ''Fez'' (Frank Stella), a 1964 painting by the moder ...

he often wore after their visit to

. Also appearing in the picture are the painter himself, Marstrand, Küchler, Blunck and Jørgen Sonne, sitting on the table. In Italy he traveled to

Sorrento Sorrento (, ; nap, Surriento ; la, Surrentum) is a town overlooking the Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the south-eastern terminus of the Circumvesuviana rail ...

, the

Sabine Mountains The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divide ...

, and

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. The following year Rørbye traveled to

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

accompanied by the architect

Michael Gottlieb Bindesbøll Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

, one of the compatriots he had met in Rome. From there they continued to

in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, a rare adventure in those days. He sketched prodigiously during his travels.

Return to Denmark

In 1837 he returned home to Copenhagen. His excellent orientalist studies from these exotic locales brought him the Danish public's attention. The Academy, recognizing the excellence of his work during his travels, invited him to apply for membership by submitting a painting. His task was to create a Turkish folk scene. His motif came from a study of a ''Caravan near Smyrna''. It was finished in 1838 and he was unanimously voted into the Academy. His studies from Greece and Turkey continued to serve as the basis for his creative output. In this regard he admired the work of French painter Horace Vernet. That same year at the Spring Exhibition he received the Exhibition Medal, the first time it had been given out, for a painting of a scene outside the

Kılıç Ali Pasha Complex The Kılıç Ali Pasha Mosque ( tr, Kılıç Ali Paşa Cami) is a mosque at the heart of a complex designed and built between 1580 and 1587 by Mimar Sinan, who at the time was in his 90s. The mosque itself was constructed in 1578-1580. The comple ...

, ''A Turkish notary witnesses a marriage contract''. Typical of Rørbye are the rich colours and careful attention to detail. He married Rose Frederikke Schiøtt on 29 August 1839. His health was not good, however, and that same autumn he traveled again to Italy in the hope of renewing his strength. He painted "''Torvet i Amalfi''" ("The plaza in Amalfi") during this stay, and it was exhibited in 1842. He returned home in 1841. He gave private painting lessons to Christen Dalsgaard, and in 1844 became professor at the Academy's school of modelling. His health deteriorated, and he died on 29 August 1848 in Copenhagen, leaving his young wife widowed and with several small children. She exhibited twelve of his paintings, mostly of Italian subjects, in 1849.

Works

He is remembered for his genre paintings, his landscapes and his architectural paintings, as well as for the many sketches he made during his numerous travels. He painted numerous scenes of life in Copenhagen, as well as large compositions showing Italian and Turkish landscapes and scenes of folk life. He painted few portraits. He was one of the most traveled of the Golden Age painters, and distinguished his artistic production by his interpretations of lands rarely explored at that time for their artistic motifs, as well as for his anecdotal genre paintings depicting the Copenhagen of his day.

Discovering Skagen

Rørbye visited Skagen on three occasions, painting the local fishermen and the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

environs. The first time was in 1833, the year before he set out on his travels to the Mediterranean area and almost half a century before the community of

formed in the town and came to fame. He returned to Skagen towards the end of his life, in the summers of 1847 and 1848. His painting of ''Men of Skagen on a summer evening in fair weather'' was one of the last he completed. His works appear in a number of Danish art museums, including the Danish National Gallery (''Statens Museum for Kunst''), the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, and the Hirschsprung Collection. File:Nørrevold mod Bellahøj - Martinus Rørbye.jpg, ''Nørrevold mod Bellahøj'', c. 1830 File:Martinus Rørbye - The Prison of Copenhagen - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Arrestbygningen ved råd- og domhuset'', 1831 File:Vester Egede Kirke (Rørbye).JPG, ''Vester Egede church'', 1832 File:Stavkirken Borgund (Rørbye).JPG, ''Stavkirken Borgund'', 1833 File:En loggia fra Procida.jpg, ''A loggia in Procida'', between 1834 and 1841 Image:En Tyrkisk Notar, Som Afslutter En Aegtepagt (Martinus Rørbye).jpg, ''A Turkish notary drawing up a marriage contract'' the painting for which Rørbye won the Thorvaldsen Medal, 1837 File:Martinus Rorbye22.jpg, ''A horse carriage on the road'', c. 1840 File:Entrance to an Inn in the Praestegarden at Hillested LACMA M.2007.33.jpg, ''Ingangen til præstegården ved Hillested'', 1844 File:Stranden ved Skagen Vesterby.jpg, ''Stranden ved Skagen Vesterby'', 1847 File:Martinus rorbye fischer aus skagen im rettungsboot.jpg, ''Fishermen returning from the sea'', 1847 File:Stockholm Palace 1848.jpg, ''Stockholm Palace'', 1848 File:Mænd af Skagen en sommeraften i godt vejr.jpg, ''Men of Skagen on a summer evening in fair weather'', one of Rørbye's last paintings, painted in Skagen in 1848

References

External links

KID Kunst Index Danmark ("Art Index Denmark")

Danish Biographical Encyclopedia ("''Dansk biografisk Leksikion''")Caspar David Friedrich: Moonwatchers
a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Martinus Rørbye (no. 18)
Source
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rorbye, Martinus 1803 births 1848 deaths Danish genre painters Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni 19th-century Danish painters Danish male painters Danish landscape painters People from Drammen Skagen Painters Recipients of the Thorvaldsen Medal Burials at Holmen Cemetery 19th-century Danish male artists