Søren Pedersen Abildgaard (18 February 1718 – 2 July 1791) 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 ...
naturalist, writer and
illustrator
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...
. He was born in
Flekkefjord
is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Flekkefjord. The villages of Sira, Gyland, Rasvåg, Kirkehavn, and Åna-Sira are lo ...
in
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 died 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 ...
in
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
.
Abildgaard traveled throughout
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
in order to create drawings of its tombstones, runes and other historic monuments. In 1753–54 he was an illustrator and painter on historian
Jacob Langebek's tour to
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 the
Baltic provinces
The Baltic governorates (russian: Прибалтийские губернии), originally the Ostsee governorates (german: Ostseegouvernements, russian: Остзейские губернии), was a collective name for the administrative units ...
.
[Danish biographical encyclopaedia / I. Vol. Aaberg - Beaumelle]
at Runeberg.org He is also remembered for his studies of
topographical
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...
and
geological
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Eart ...
conditions and phenomena.
[Søren Abildgaard]
at Store norske leksikon
From 1755 to 1778 he worked as a master draftsman at the Royal ''
Gehejmearkivet'' in Copenhagen. His drawings are presently kept at the
National Museum of Denmark
The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) in Copenhagen is Denmark's largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main building is located a short distance from Strøget ...
and at the
Frederiksborg Museum in
Hillerød
Hillerød () is a Denmark, Danish town with a population of 35,357 (1 January 2022)[Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard
Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard (11 September 1743 – 4 June 1809) was a Danish neoclassical and royal history painter, sculptor, architect, and professor of painting, mythology, and anatomy at the New Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen ...]
(1744–1809) and
Peter Christian Abildgaard
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a su ...
(1740–1801).
Published works
In 1759 he published the first geological account of the
chert
Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...
and fossil bearing
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...
beds at
Stevns Klint
Stevns Klint, known as the Cliffs of Stevns in English, is a white chalk cliff located some southeast of Store Heddinge on the Danish island of Zealand. Stretching along the coast, it is of geological importance as one of the best exposed Cre ...
on the Danish island of
Zealand
Zealand ( da, Sjælland ) at 7,031 km2 is the largest and most populous island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 January 2020.
It is the 1 ...
, ''Beskrivelse over Stevens Klint og dens naturlige Mærkværdigheder''. His other works include ''Physisk-mineralogisk Beskrivelse over Möens klint'' (Physical and
mineralogical
Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proce ...
description of
Møns Klint
Møns Klint is a 6 km stretch of limestone and chalk cliffs along the eastern coast of the Danish island of Møn in the Baltic Sea. Some of the cliffs fall a sheer 120 m to the sea below. The highest cliff is , which is 128 m above sea lev ...
; 1781) and a treatise on
peat
Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...
, titled ''Afhandling om Tørv'' (1765).
Abildgaard, Søren
The Mineralogical Record - Library
Literature
* Poul Grinder-Hansen, ''Søren Abildgaard (1718-1791) - Fortiden på tegnebrættet'', Nationalmuseet, 2011. .(in Danish).
References and external links
Most widely held works by Søren Abildgaard
at WorldCat Identities
1718 births
1791 deaths
Danish naturalists
Danish science writers
18th-century Danish illustrators
Danish scientific illustrators
People from Flekkefjord
18th-century Danish people
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