Joakim Skovgaard

https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joakim_Skovgaard

He is primarily known for his landscape paintings, and for the special role he played in portraying Denmark’s nature; not the spectacular but the ordinary and typical. He helped develop a unique Danish art form and sensibility. He had a deep sympathy for the Danish landscape and its uniqueness, especially Denmark’s beloved beech forests. Animal life and locals that belonged to the land populated these landscapes. He studied nature diligently, and tried to portray it faithfully, yet ideally, and with a love of his country. He was a master of composition, and in his later works he developed an increasing interest in portraying atmosphere and light. The scale of his paintings was a breakthrough in Danish art. He is considered one of the leasing landscape painters of the 1800’s. His art production and academic career had a large influence on landscape painting’s future in Denmark. He occasionally painted portraits. These skillful works include paintings of his family and children, of fellow artists such as Lundbye (1841), of friends such as Amelie Elisabeth Freunds (1860), H. E. Freunds’ wife, and of society’s important people such as N.F.S. Grundtvig (1847), of whom he was a big admirer. His work has been shown both in Denmark and internationally in numerous exhibitions of Danish art, and especially art representative of the Golden Age of Danish Painting. These include exhibitions in London (1907, 1948), Paris (1928, 1984-1985), New York City (1960-1961, 1964), and Rome (1974). His works are in the collection of many Danish museums including the Danish National Gallery (Statens Museum for Kunst), the Hirschsprung Collection, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen’s City Museum, Thorvaldsens Museum, Ordrupgaard, and local art museums in Aarhus, Horsens, and Ribe. Another Danish national romantic landscape painters of his generation, in addition to lifelong friend J.T. Lundbye, was Vilhelm Kyhn. The Skovgaard Museum in Viborg is dedicated to the artistic production of the entire Skovgaard family. A number of paintings by P.C. Skovgaard are in the museum’s collection.