13/4/23 - Acquisitions and rehanging - Paris, Musée du Louvre - Unfortunately, rooms 858 to 864 in the Paintings department are located at a dead end and have too often been closed, depriving visitors of the joy of admiring their Flemish, Dutch, Germanic and Scandinavian gems. This situation is all the more regrettable for Danish paintings, which constitute a very young collection, initiated by a few avant-garde minds - there are sometimes some in French museums - during the 1980s. Under the impetus of Michel Laclotte, the Paintings department took an interest in German Romanticism as well as in the "golden age of Danish painting", which almost naturally gave its title to the pioneering exhibition held at the Grand Palais in the winter of 1984-1985. The current closure of these intimate spaces is justified, however, by the renovation work that has become necessary over the years: as Sébastien Allard, director of the Paintings department, kindly pointed out, this work could not be included in the major renovation of the Nordic painting rooms in the Richelieu wing carried out between 2016 and 2017.
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- 1. Martinus Rørbye (1803-1848)
The Caulking of the Wreck of the Ann af Sunderland, 1847
Oil on board - 37 x 55 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: Bruun Rasmussen - See the image in its page
Each new addition to the Louvre’s small collection of Danish paintings deserves to be welcomed as it should be, and we look forward to the acquisition of a magnificent first painting (ill. 1) by Martinus Rørbye, an artist hitherto absent from national collections. Brought to auction on 6 March 2023 in Copenhagen, it was sold for the equivalent of €213,000 with costs [Estimated at between DKK 600 and 800,000, the painting was sold for more than a million, or around €161,240 at the hammer, by Bruun Rasmussen, now a member of the Bonhams network. The name of a ship aground on a beach, the Ann af Sunderland, can be easily distinguished, its imposing mass crushing a crowd of small figures working on its hull. Everything seduces the eye in this composition: the air, the light, the sea, the thousand and one nuances of the ship’s hull that the artist has endeavoured to render with subtlety.
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- 2. The Brunn Rasmussen catalogue entry
- See the image in its page
Contrary to what is indicated both in the notice (ill. 2) of the sale catalogue and the first articles mentioning this acquisition, announced in a tweet from the Musée du Louvre, the beach depicted may not be that of Frederikshavn. The story of the shipwreck of this schooner is indeed well known, as recounted in a rich article published by Jens Thidemann on 31 March. The ship set sail from the Prussian port of Stettin [1], carrying a cargo of grain and bound for London, but ran aground in Skagen on 27 November 1846 while crossing the Kattegat, the bay separating Sweden from Denmark. The schooner was the victim of a violent storm that led to other shipwrecks, but it did not sink and its crew and cargo were saved by local fishermen. However, Skagen is only forty kilometres from Frederikshavn, the two ports being separated by a continuous beach. Finally, the scene is well located in Frederikshavn in the old title of the composition, which dates back to the artist’s after-death sale, two years after the painting was executed, dated 1847 and signed with the painter’s initials.
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- 3. Martinus Rørbye (1803-1848)
The Caulking of the Wreck of the Ann af Sunderland, 1847
Pencil - 26.5 x 40.1 cm
Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst
Photo: Statens Museum for Kunst - See the image in its page
During the winter of 1846-47, the grain and materials from the ship were gradually recovered, since an auction could be held with them on 8 February 1847, shortly before the artist’s visit to Skagen, where he sketched the scene in pencil in a drawing (ill. 3) preserved at the SMK in Copenhagen. This is reproduced - but not exhibited - in the catalogue of the "Beyond the light" exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which hosted his first Rørbye in 2007 (see news item of 9/3/08) and now uses this attractive night scene as a poster. Contrary to what was stated in the sale catalogue, the hull is not being dismantled, but is being maintained in order to be re-floated. Missing parts, such as the mast, were probably dismantled before the work was carried out. If the drawing was probably executed on the spot, the same is probably true for the painting, since we can also see grains of sand (ill. 4) embedded in the beach material in the foreground! In good condition, requiring a priori only a simple care, this painting painted on cardboard will however need a protective glass which will soon be made by the workshops of the Louvre.
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- 4. Martinus Rørbye (1803-1848)
The Calfing of the Wreck of the Ann af Sunderland, 1847
Oil on board - 37 x 55 cm (detail)
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: Bruun Rasmussen - See the image in its page
The Caulking on the Wreck of the Ann af Sunderland could easily have taken its place in the recent exhibition at the Fondation Custodia (see article) orchestrated by the late Ger Luijten or joined the rich collections of the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, an institution notoriously fond of Danish works (see for example the news items of 5/8/20 and of 13/2/22). However, we can only be delighted to see it enter the Louvre Museum, which thus far has not kept any work by this pupil of Eckersberg, best known for his travels around the Mediterranean.
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- 5. Martinus Rørbye (1803-1848)
View from the artist’s room, 1825
Oil on canvas - 38 x 29.8 cm
Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst
Photo: Statens Museum for Kunst - See the image in its page
Martinus Rørbye was indeed born in Norway before studying at the Copenhagen Academy, where he first attended the classes of a little known painter. His Grand Tour took him to Rome via Paris, just like his master, whose career has been well known to the French public since the formidable retrospective held in the summer of 2016 (see article). The artist then travelled to Greece and Turkey, unprecedented destinations for a young Danish painter. A dozen of his works could be admired in the recent exhibition at the Petit Palais (see article), unfortunately deprived of visitors due to the second confinement in autumn 2020, but whose catalogue provides interesting elements of comparison with the painting in the Louvre. Although Martinus Rørbye remains famous for his Mediterranean views, he obviously did not neglect Scandinavia and left a fascinating view from his bedroom window, opening onto the port, the arsenal and the sea (ill. 5). Perfectly described by Carl-Johan Olsson in the catalogue of the Petit Palais exhibition, this early painting shows the young artist’s interest in boats, which is confirmed by a drawing (ill. 6) done the following year. It shows two artists wearing suits and top hats, sitting on solid pieces of wood to better immortalise the shipyard.
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- 6. Martinus Rørbye (1803-1848)
Two artists in front of a shipyard, 1826
Pen and grey ink, brush and brown wash over pencil - 15.3 x 24.5 cm
Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst
Photo: Statens Museum for Kunst - See the image in its page
Martinus Rørbye was, above all, one of the first Danish artists to explore the northern reaches of Danish territory, travelling across the Jutland peninsula to the small village of Skagen, where the schooner ran aground. Then virtually unknown to the inhabitants of Copenhagen, this isolated province became famous at the end of the 19th century when a colony of artists settled in the fishing port: Peder Severin Krøyer and Christian Krohg (see news item of 7/9/20) made the name of Skagen famous in art history. Rørbye visited Jutland five times between 1833 and 1847, both at the beginning of his career and at the end of his life: he painted his last pictures there, among which - in addition to the work acquired by the Louvre - this View of Skagen beach or this final masterpiece where the men of the village are smoking in the dunes while looking towards the horizon. As several observers have pointed out, The Caulking of the Wreck of the Ann af Sunderland is finally irresistibly reminiscent of a painting (ill. 7) by Édouard Manet, painted a quarter of a century later in Berck-sur-Mer but representing a similar subject [2].
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- 7. Édouard Manet (1832-1883)
Tarring the Boat, 1873
Oil on canvas - 50 x 61.2 cm
Philadelphia, The Barnes Foundation
Photo: The Barnes Foundation - See the image in its page
Although Martinus Rørbye has thus far been absent from the Louvre’s collections, several works by his hand can be admired when crossing the Seine, since the Fondation Custodia holds a splendid collection of Danish drawings, initiated by Frits Lugt’s successor, Carlos van Hasselt. Seventy-five previously unpublished sheets - including six Rørbye - were exhibited in 2007 at the Maison du Danemark (see article), but the institution preserves many more, amassed thanks to relationships established with Nordic dealers and curators. This very dynamic policy was naturally embraced with success by Ger Luijten, who also acquired from Jean-François Heim in 2011 the ravishing Italian oil on paper by Martinus Rørbye (ill. 8) presented in the exhibitions An Intimate Universe (see article) and then On the Ground. Painting in the open air 1780-1870 (see article).
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- 8. Martinus Rørbye (1803-1848)
Hunter in a Cave at Cervara, 1835
Oil on paper pasted on canvas - 20.2 x 31.6 cm
Paris, Fondation Custodia
Photo : Fondation Custodia - See the image in its page
As one of Eckersberg’s favourite pupils, the first artist from the "golden age of Danish painting" to join the French public collections, Martinus Rørbye certainly deserved to be represented at the Musée du Louvre, whose directors have chosen a work as attractive as The Caulking of the Wreck of the Ann af Sunderland. One can only hope that one day a painting painted abroad will join it in the museum’s galleries, as the artist remains above all famous for his numerous journeys which took him to the shores of the Bosphorus. When he returned home, he offered a Turkish scene as a reception piece - the sketch of which has recently joined the Davids Samling - to the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, where he was appointed professor six years later.
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- 9. Fritz Petzholdt (1805-1838)
Trees in Charlottenlund; painted from life, 1827
Oil on canvas - 57 x 49 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: C2RMF/T. Clot - See the image in its page
Decidedly keeping an active watch on the Danish art market, the Musée du Louvre had already spotted a superb painting (ill. 9) by a rare artist: Fritz Petzholdt. Another brilliant pupil of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, he specialised in landscape painting, painting many views of the region north of Copenhagen. Financially well off, he travelled extensively, first to Germany and then to Italy, where most of his artistic activity was concentrated. Inspired by the mountains around Rome, where he travelled via Dresden, he executed numerous studies in warm colours such as these beautiful sunny rocks, exhibited at the Petit Palais in 2020. Painted when the artist was only twenty-two years old, this beautiful landscape overlooking the city of Copenhagen was also sold at an auction at Brunn Rasmusseen’s in Copenhagen - on 21 September 2021 - but for a derisory sum, since the painting was auctioned for 35,000 Danish kroner, the equivalent of €4706 per hammer! There is something pleasing about seeing the Louvre acquire such a beautiful painting for a modest price, especially as Fritz Petzholdt left mostly drawings or studies painted "on the spot" in oil on paper.
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- 10. Fritz Petzholdt (1805-1838)
Study for Trees at Charlottenlund; painted from life
Pencil - 12.5 x 17.6 cm
Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst
Photo: SMK (public domain) - See the image in its page
The Statens Museum for Kunst also preserves a first thought (ill. 10) for this composition, where the figures are still absent. The artist expanded the two trees, which were quickly drawn in pencil, while retaining the well, the gate and the wooden barrier. He then animated his landscape with a few small figures going about their business, including two workers busy cutting stones. The canvas was damaged by the presence of a yellow and irregular varnish and needed to be restored in the workshop. It was therefore sent to the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF) for study and analysis. The aim was to confirm its status, since an autograph replica of the same dimensions had been sold at Bruun Rasmussen in December 2002 and again in September 2022. Infrared reflectography revealed some discrepancies and confirmed the status of the work acquired by the Louvre, which was then able to launch the actual restoration: Alice Mohen took care of the paint layer while Christian Chatellier took care of the canvas support, which required new tension bands. Côme Fabre, curator of the Paintings Department, assured us that this moving work would certainly be visible before this summer. The painting has a crucial history, since it appeared in 1854 in the sale after the death of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, who had obviously wanted to keep this souvenir of his tragically deceased pupil: Fritz Petzholdt went to Greece in the summer of 1838 and ended his life there.
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- 11. Andreas Thomas Juuel (1817-1868)
View of Roskilde Cathedral, 1857
Oil on paper mounted on plywood panel - 23 x 30 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: RMN-GP/H. Lewandowski - See the image in its page
Finally, a word should be said about a small, beautifully painted study recently donated to the Louvre after a singular journey: this view of Roskilde Cathedral (ill. 11) painted in 1857 by the little-known Andreas Juuel was acquired from Bruun Rasmussen in 2012 by the French collector who exhibited his collection of Danish paintings at La Piscine in Roubaix in 2013-2014 (see article) before selling it to Artcurial several years later (see news item of 15/4/19): bought back in Paris, the painting went back to Denmark where it was sold to Guillaume Chandon at Bruun Rasmussen’s in Copenhagen in October 2019, but he has just donated it to the Louvre, definitively anchoring the Parisian destiny of this attractive little landscape showing one of the country’s emblematic buildings, which has housed the burials of members of the Danish royal family for several centuries.
These three brilliant acquisitions by the Musée du Louvre represent a new stage in the constitution of a representative group of 19th-century Danish works, already inaugurated at Bruun Rasmussen in Copenhagen, where four fine paintings were acquired by the institution at the same June 1980 sale. In the latest issue of Grande Galerie, le Journal du Louvre, Côme Fabre reviews the history of this small collection, which now numbers twenty pieces and was continued in the 1990s thanks to the patronage of the Saint-Gobain company. After a slight pause, the reasons for which escape us, business picked up again in 2008 with the purchase - from the Matthiesen Gallery - of Wilhelm Bendz’s The Visit of the Beggar Woman. In 2013, the publication of the Catalogue of British, Spanish, Germanic, Scandinavian and Miscellaneous Paintings of the Musée du Louvre (see the article) enabled Élisabeth Foucart-Walter to draw up a first assessment of this discreet but effective policy, It was continued in 2018 with the acquisition of a very fine painting by Johan Thomas Lundbye (see the news item of 5/7/18) that many amateurs had been able to admire at the dealer Jean-François Heim, also a pioneer in the rediscovery of the "golden age of Danish painting".
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- 12. Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783-1853)
A Danish Sloop Going Downwind, 1831
Oil on canvas - 58.4 x 86.8 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: RMN-GP/M. Urtado - See the image in its page
Let us end with a retrospective look at Eckersberg’s first painting (ill. 12) to join the Louvre: A Danish Sloop Going Downwind was offered to the museum in 1919 by a group of Danish amateurs chaired by Karl Madsen, director of the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen. He wished to thank France for having lifted the sequestration of the famous Portrait of the Two Elder Daughters Nathanson, bequeathed to the Danish museum by Mme Hélène Rée, a German national. As Côme Fabre recounts in Grande Galerie, le Journal du Louvre, it was subject to a law confiscating the property of German nationals residing in France, but the curators of the time only retained the iconographic interest of this navy, which was quickly exiled to the rooms of the "Musée de la Marine" still housed in the Louvre and then transferred to the Palais de Chaillot when the new Musée de la Marine was set up there in 1937. It was not until 1972 that it was returned to the Louvre, where we look forward to being able to admire it again soon, once the renovation of the rooms is completed. We can only hope for a better lighting system, happier colours for the picture rails and, of course, less frequent untimely closures of these spaces, which remain almost every day a haven of peace in the heart of the world’s busiest museum [3].