Image within image - five portraits of "art appreciation"

The Raffenberg family, byWilhelm Bendz, 1830.

Unknown family, unknown artist, circa 1780.

Double portrait, by Giuseppe Tominz, 1830.

The Johann Christian Edler von Bruchmann family, by Josef Abel, 1810.

Self-portrait with her husband, Petrus Kiers, by Elisabeth Alida Haanen, 1845.

The Four Ages of Man - paintings by Ditlev Blunck, 1840-1845

Childhood.

Youth.

Maturity.

Old Age.

***

Childhood - detail.

Youth - detail.

Maturity - detail.

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Ditlev Conrad Blunck (22 June 1798, Münsterdorf, Schleswig-Holstein – 7 January 1853, Hamburg), Danish painter associated with the artistic blossoming now known as the Danish Golden Age. In 1814, at the age of sixteen, he began studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen. At the same time, along with his friend Wilhelm Bendz, he received training from Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg. Four years later he moved to Munich and enrolled in the Academy there. He remained in Munich until 1820, when he returned to Copenhagen. Under the influence of a new professor, J. L. Lund, Blunck focused on history painting during the early years of his career. Later, that focus changed to genre painting, and for that he is best remembered. From 1828 he spent much time in Germany - Berlin, Munich, Dresden - and came in contact with some of the most influential artists of the day. He also traveled to Rome during the 1830s, where he joined the group of Danish artists who surrounded the celebrated sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, and where he painted some of his major works. Back in Denmark in 1841, the threat of scandal and/or prosecution related to his homosexuality caused him to leave the country suddenly; he never returned. He died in Germany at the age of fifty-four.

These four paintings form a series and were commissioned by King Christian VIII of Denmark. Produced during this time of personal upheaval in the first half of the 1840s, they are examples of  Blunck’s mature style, one which was influenced by the “Nazarenes”, a group of primarily German artists who wished to convey "earnest" sentiments in their work in contrast, they felt, to the “exteriority” typified by French art of the time. These paintings make an interesting contrast with those featured in my recent post on Thomas Cole's "The Voyage of Life" of 1842: four paintings on the same subject, painted during the same few years. 

 A Young Artist Examining a Sketch in a Mirror, Wilhelm Bendz' well-known image of his friend, Ditlev Blunck, 1826.

The Waagepetersen Family, by Wilhelm Bendz, 1830

Wilhelm Bendz - only two years away from his premature death - has portrayed the merchant Waagepetersen and his wife Albertine with their two young children in what looks to be the husband's study. Christian Waagepetersen (6 September 1787, Copenhagen - 23 November 1840, Copenhagen) was a successful Danish wine merchant, supplier to the royal court, and an important patron of the arts. The couple's home at Store Strandstræde in Copenhagen was a gathering place of some of the era's most important musicians, many of whom Waagepetersen helped support. His love of music was so profound that he named three of his sons Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven.

The children look rather stiff and doll-like, but Bendz's portrait of Waagepetersen is vivid, what could be called a "speaking likeness".

The artist's portrayal of Albertine Waagepetersen can't have been terribly flattering....

The light streaming in from the open window - illuminating, reflecting - is wonderful.

I love how the light reflects the gold-leaf onto the walls, and I think the ribbon-wrapped picture cords and their rosettes are charming.

I believe that the two oval portraits are of  Waagepetersen's parents. Above them, Napoléon...?

Above the jumble of books on the mahogany desk is a portrait of the Danish king, Frederik VI. In the glass cylinder, a little green frog.

I love the rather grumpy looking dog, lying on a cushion at his master's feet.

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 "Familien Waagepetersen", by Wilhelm Marstrand,1836.

Mrs. Waagepetersen - in a more flattering portrait, certainly - is, six years later, portrayed by Marstrand with three additional children and what appear to be a nurse (in traditional costume) and a governess. Her husband, not included in the group, would die four years later.

Wilhelm Marstrand (24 December 1810, Copenhagen – 25 March 1873, Copenhagen), painter and illustrator, one of the important artists of the "Golden Age of Danish Painting". Like Bendz, he was, early in his career, a protégé of Christian Waagepetersen and was his favored artist after the death of Bendz.

Paintings by Wilhelm Bendz

A Smoking Party, 1827-28.

Wilhelm Ferdinand Bendz (20 March 1804, Odense - 14 November 1832, Vicenza), Danish painter mainly known for genre works and portraits which often portray his artist colleagues and their daily lives. He was one of the most talented of the artists who studied under Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, but he died early and therefore left a relatively small oeuvre.

At the age of sixteen he was sent to Copenhagen where he attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1820 to 1825, and where he studied under Eckersberg. In his last year there, he made an unsuccessful attempt to win the gold medal - which was only given to history paintings, the most prestigious genre at that time - and after that decided to specialize in the portraits and genre works for which he would be remembered.

After his graduation he participated at the annual exhibitions at Charlottenborg from 1826 to 1828, and was then employed as an assistant in Eckersberg's studio. There he painted copies of his master's work, and participated on projects such as the reconstruction of Abildgaard's history paintings at Christiansborg Palace which had been destroyed in the fire of 1794.

In 1830 Bendz received a travel scholarship which enabled him to study in southern Europe. After visiting Dresden and Berlin, he stopped for about a year in Munich, which was then a vibrant center for the arts. In the autumn of 1832 he continued his journey towards Rome, stopping in Venice, where he was reunited with Ditlev Blunck, a friend and fellow painter from his student days at the Academy in Copenhagen. They continued on together, but Bendz, who had fallen ill in Venice, died shortly after in Vicenza from a lung infection. He was twenty-eight.

Portrait of a Young Man, 1832.

Artists in the Evening at Finck's Coffee House in Munich, 1832.

Portrait of an Elderly Woman, 1832.

Interior from Amaliegade: Captain Carl Ludvig Bendz Standing and Dr. Jacob Christian Bendz Seated, 1829. (The models are Benz's brothers.)

Portrait of the Anatomist Henrik Carl Bang Bendz, 1829. (Another of the artist's brothers.)

A Young Artist [Ditlev Blunck] Examining a Sketch in a Mirror, 1826.