Arguably, Christen Købke (1810–1848) is one of the greatest talents of Denmark’s “Golden Age”, yet he is virtually unknown outside his own country, which makes this exhibition particularly engaging. Denmark’s Golden Age – the term used to describe the amazing diversity of intellectual, scientific and cultural achievements of the first half of the 19th century – was nevertheless a time of social inequality and economic collapse as the nation was declared bankrupt in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. Yet the country recovered with remarkable swiftness and creative endeavour to produce defining images of a peaceful, innocent, ordered society.
Painters such as Købke were at the forefront of this response, reflecting a renewal of national pride in depicting the lives and reflecting their surroundings through their art. Købke’s cool, carefully-observed landscapes demonstrate his ability to endow ordinary people, places and simple motifs with a universal significance, creating a world in microcosm for the viewer as in Cigar Seller at the Northern Exit from the Citadel.
Born the son of a prosperous Copenhagen baker, Købke rarely strayed far from his home city other than for two years when he somewhat reluctantly made the obligatory artists’ pilgrimage to Italy. Here he painted scenes such as Castel dell’Ovo in Naples. But he only felt at home in his own country, finding inspiration more readily in his home city, where he painted his immediate and familiar surroundings, almost all of which were within the fortified walls of the Danish capital such as View of the Citadel Ramparts Towards Langelinie and the Naval Harbour.
This pleasing, quiet, unassuming show comprises 48 of Købke’s most seductive and distinguished works spanning a variety of genres. It includes early and accomplished life studies of the nude, following on a Renaissance tradition, landscape, topography, portraiture and his charmingly oblique depictions of national monuments informed by a decidedly avant-garde sensibility. They represent some of the most innovative aspects of his work – including outdoor sketching – his fascination with painterly immediacy and his unique treatment of light and atmosphere. One quietly humorous image depicts a rather smartly dressed man who appears to be dusting a group of classical sculpture – an unlikely subject but one that occurred most days.
Scenes include those of his own town, such as The Northern Drawbridge to the Citadel in Copenhagen, in which the red bridge dwarfs completely the diminutive figures. It is a soft and delicate image, predating similar scenes by Van Gogh, yet you feel it is as accurate depiction as you could wish. Portraits of many of his family and closest friends include one of his mother, detailed representations of fellow artists and of Danish national monuments.
The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard succinctly expressed Købke’s timely success when he said: “The moment comes when the man is there, the right man, the man of the moment”. The Golden Age has become known as “the age of Købke” and his precise and clear-cut manner, sharp focus and pristine depiction of light and his sensitive, soft use of colour have become synonymous with the image of this time of an unrivalled creative flowering.
Christen Købke: Danish Master of Light continues until June 13
