Søren Pedersen Abildgaard (18 February 1718 – 2 July 1791) was a Danish

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

, 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 complicate ...

. He was born in

Flekkefjord Flekkefjord () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Lister Region, Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and died in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. Abildgaard traveled throughout

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, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and the

Baltic provinces The Baltic Governorates, originally the Ostsee Governorates, was a collective name for the administrative units of the Russian Empire set up in the territories of Swedish Estonia, Swedish Livonia (1721) and, afterwards, of the Duchy of Courlan ...

.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 landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary scienc ...

and

geological Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth s ...

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, 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 S ...

and at the Frederiksborg Museum in

Hillerød Hillerød () is a Denmark, Danish town with a population of 36,604 (1 January 2025)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 Copenhage ...

(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 sur ...

(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. Ch ...

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 C ...

on the Danish island of

Zealand Zealand ( ) is the largest and most populous islands of Denmark, island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size) at 7,031 km2 (2715 sq. mi.). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 Januar ...

, ''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 proces ...

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 is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most ...

, 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 topographers Danish science writers 18th-century Danish illustrators Danish scientific illustrators People from Flekkefjord 18th-century Danish people {{Denmark-artist-stub