Dankvart Dreyer
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Dankvart Dreyer (13 June 1816 – 4 November 1852) 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 a ...
landscape painter Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composi ...
of the Copenhagen School of painters who was educated under the guidance of
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (2 January 1783 – 22 July 1853) was a Danish painter. He was born in Blåkrog in the Southern Jutland region of Denmark. He went on to lay the foundation for the period of art known as the Golden Age of Da ...
. Around 1840, he was part of the emerging
National Romantic Romantic nationalism (also national romanticism, organic nationalism, identity nationalism) is the form of nationalism in which the state claims its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs. This includes ...
landscape painting scene in Denmark but as a result of his over-dramatic and excessively natural style, he did not fit the aesthetics and the ideology of the period. After being widely criticized, he turned his back on the artistic establishment and passed into near oblivion. In 1852, when only 36 years old, he died from
typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...
. Posthumously, half a century after his death, his reputation was restored, prompted by the art historian
Karl Madsen Carl Johan Wilhelm Madsen, commonly known as Karl Madsen, (22 March 1855 – 16 April 1938) was a Danish painter and art historian with close connections to the Skagen Painters. Early life and education Born in Copenhagen on 22 March 1855, Ma ...
, and today he is considered to be one of the leading Danish landscape painters of his day, the peer of his more famous contemporaries P. C. Skovgaard and
Johan Lundbye Johan Thomas Lundbye (1 September 1818 – 25 April 1848) was a Danish painter and graphic artist, known for his animal and landscape paintings. He was inspired by Niels Laurits Høyen's call to develop nationalistic art through depictions of De ...
.


Early life and education

As the youngest of 15 children, Dankvart Dreyer was born on 13 June 1816 in Assens on the Danish island of
Funen Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as of ...
. His parents were Jørgen Christian Dreyer, a successful merchant who had been the richest man in town until the national bankruptcy in 1813, and his third wife Caroline Dorthea (née Møller). Dankvart soon showed a gift for drawing. Another boy in Assens at that time, born the same year as Dankvart, was Jens Adolf Jerichau, who also was to become a prominent artist. He later commented on young Dreyer's remarkable gifts and dedication: "While I was fooling around with the other boys, he would be sitting at home with his mother and sister drawing, and you can hardly imagine anyone with a greater disposition for art than that boy." Dreyer's godfather therefore saw to it that in 1831, at the age of 15, the boy was sent to
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 ...
to study 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 Dan ...
. Under the supervision of his professors, J. L. Lund and
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (2 January 1783 – 22 July 1853) was a Danish painter. He was born in Blåkrog in the Southern Jutland region of Denmark. He went on to lay the foundation for the period of art known as the Golden Age of Da ...
, he trained to become a
history painter History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible ...
, the most prestigious artistic discipline at that time, and also painted some portraits. He was talented and successful, winning several awards before he turned 21.


Turn to landscaping

Dreyer also had private lessons with
Christen Købke Christen Schiellerup Købke (26 May 1810 – 7 February 1848) was a Danish painter, and one of the best known artists from the Golden Age of Danish Painting. Childhood and early training He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was one of 11 ...
, another professor at the Academy. He also met a group of fellow Academy students who were studying landscape painting, still a relatively unappreciated discipline at the Academy. Among them were P. C. Skovgaard and
Johan Lundbye Johan Thomas Lundbye (1 September 1818 – 25 April 1848) was a Danish painter and graphic artist, known for his animal and landscape paintings. He was inspired by Niels Laurits Høyen's call to develop nationalistic art through depictions of De ...
who became his close friends and inspired him to take still more interest in landscaping. Alone or together with them, he made frequent excursions to the countryside north of Copenhagen, particularly the area around
Fredensborg Fredensborg () is a railway town located in Fredensborg Municipality, North Zealand, some 30 kilometres north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is most known for Fredensborg Palace, one of the official residences of the Danish Royal Family. As of 1 Janu ...
and
Jægersborg Dyrehave Dyrehaven (Danish 'The Deer Park'), officially Jægersborg Dyrehave, is a forest park north of Copenhagen. It covers around . Dyrehaven is noted for its mixture of huge, ancient oak trees and large populations of red and fallow deer. In July ...
. There he made detailed sketches and studies of nature.


Painting the other Denmark


Funen and Brandsø

Unlike most of his contemporaries, Dreyer never went abroad to further his studies, although he applied for travel scholarships on three occasions. Instead, he travelled widely in Denmark. His native island of Funen remained a focal point for his artistic attention throughout his career, particularly the area around Assens where he had grown up. A place of particular importance to him was the small manor house of Rugaard which he visited almost every summer from 1837 to 1847 to paint. Several times he also sought out the small island of Brandsø in the
Little Belt The Little Belt (, ) is a strait between the island of Funen and the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark. It is one of the three Danish Straits that drain and connect the Baltic Sea to the Kattegat strait, which drains west to the North Sea and Atla ...
, the narrow strait between Funen and Jutland, where he found a near perfect landscape to his liking with dolmens and distant coasts.


Across Jutland

Dreyer's appetite for exploring the provinces also brought him to
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 ...
, a rare destination for painters at the time. He was the first to paint the gentle landscapes along the east coast or the
moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...
of central Jutland.
Martinus Rørbye Martinus Christian Wesseltoft Rørbye (; 17 May 1803 – 29 August 1848) was a Danish painter, known both for genre works and landscapes. He was a central figure of the Golden Age of Danish painting during the first half of the 19th century. Th ...
, often described as the most adventurous of the Danish Golden Age painters, had visited Jutland on the way to Norway back in 1830 and made it all the way to remote district of Thy in north-western Jutland. However, he had found the landscape unsuitable for painting due to the lack of trees. This did not bother Dreyer who had been struck by the short stories of Steen Steensen Blicher, a distant relative of his. Blicher's descriptions of the stark beauty of the vast, brown-colored heaths of mid Jutland, of its people and almost exotic dialects, had a mesmerizing effect on the painter. Dreyer first visited the east coast around Aarhus in 1838 and later that year he was present when Blicher arranged his first National Awakening Meeting at
Himmelbjerget Himmelbjerget ("The Sky Mountain" or "The Mountain of Heaven") is a hill located between Ry and Silkeborg, Denmark in the area known as Søhøjlandet. With a height of 147 m (482 ft), Himmelbjerget is one of the highest natural point ...
. He went on to paint the heath and, when he returned in 1843, he went all the way to the west coast.


The emerging National Romantic landscape era

In the years around 1840, the influential art historian and critic
Niels Laurits Høyen Niels Laurits Andreas Høyen (4 June 1798 – 29 April 1870) is considered to be the first Danish art historian and critic. He promoted a Danish nationalistic art through his writings and lectures, and exerted a far reaching effect on contempo ...
campaigned for
nationalistic 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: T ...
art, reflecting a tendency which was seen all over Europe. In Denmark, people enthusiastically read
Bernhard Severin Ingemann Bernhard Severin Ingemann (28 May 1789 – 24 February 1862) was a Danish novelist and poet. Biography Ingemann was born in Torkilstrup, on the island of Falster, Denmark. The son of a vicar, he was left fatherless in his youth. While a st ...
's historic novels and Adam Oehlenschläger while
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 pe ...
's sermons were drawing large crowds. According to Høyen, painters, too, should contribute to this national awakening. Instead of turning to the Mediterranean area, its landscapes and its people, and to
classical mythology Classical mythology, Greco-Roman mythology, or Greek and Roman mythology is both the body of and the study of myths from the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans as they are used or transformed by cultural reception. Along with philosophy and poli ...
, for inspiration, they should paint what defined their native Denmark: the Danish landscape and its people, Danish history, and Norse mythology. Lundbye, Sjovgaard and Dankvart had for years preferred Danish subjects and became the leading proponents of the emerging era of
National Romantic Romantic nationalism (also national romanticism, organic nationalism, identity nationalism) is the form of nationalism in which the state claims its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs. This includes ...
painting.


Adversity and withdrawal

However, as time progressed, Dreyer increasingly turned his back on what was considered good taste by Copenhagen's artistic establishment. Symptomatically, Lundbye and Skovgaard often attended Grundtvig's sermons while Dreyer preferred to read Blicher. It was not enough just to paint the Danish landscape in order to satisfy the aesthetics and ideology of the time. ''Good'' painting, it was believed, should not merely document the scenery at a specific locale. It was supposed to be a carefully composed representation of an idealized picture of the nation and the national character. The physicist Hans Christian Ørsted had launched the theory that people reflected the landscape they lived in. The Danish national character, he maintained, was calm and proud because the Danish landscape was so undramatic and the climate so mild. Dreyer could not, or would not, meet these demands. Painting the browning moorlands and not just the rolling, green hills of eastern Denmark, he was judged to be painting the wrong Denmark. He also presented a rougher, less sophisticated, image of the Danish countryside; one which was more dramatic and more natural. The critics reacted strongly against him. Dreyer, whose reserved and introvert nature had been observed by Jerichau during his childhood, stopped exhibiting at the annual
Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition The Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition (''Charlottenborg Forårsudstilling'') is an annual art exhibition in Copenhagen, Denmark. The event is held at the Charlottenborg Exhibition Building (''Kunsthal Charlottenborg''). Kunsthal Charlottenborg ...
and increasingly withdrew from Copenhagen's art scene. In 1848, he moved back to Funen, settling in the little village near Assens where he had grown up. He never stopped painting but he made no further efforts to exhibit. In 1852, when only 36, he died of
typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...
.


Regained recognition

The art historian
Karl Madsen Carl Johan Wilhelm Madsen, commonly known as Karl Madsen, (22 March 1855 – 16 April 1938) was a Danish painter and art historian with close connections to the Skagen Painters. Early life and education Born in Copenhagen on 22 March 1855, Ma ...
reestablished Dreyer's reputation as one of the leading landscape artists of the day, on a par with Lundbye and Skovgaard, when commenting on two exhibitions in 1901 and 1912.


See also

*
Art of Denmark Danish art is the visual arts produced in Denmark or by Danish artists. It goes back thousands of years with significant artifacts from the 2nd millennium BC, such as the Trundholm sun chariot. For many early periods, it is usually considered ...
*
List of Danish painters This is a list of Danish painters who were born in or whose creative production is associated with Denmark: A * Axel Aabrink (1887–1965) * Jørgen Aabye (1868–1959) * Carl Frederik Aagaard (1833–1895) * Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard (1 ...


References


Sources

* Suzanne Ludvigsen, ''Maleren Dankvart Dreyer''. Forlaget Vandkunsten. (468 pages)


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dreyer, Dankvart 1816 births 1852 deaths Deaths from typhus People from Assens Municipality Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni 19th-century Danish painters Danish male painters Danish landscape painters 19th-century Danish male artists