En almuesmand set bagfra

1778

Professor at the Academy of Art

Soon after joining the Academy Abildgaard was appointed to a professorship, teaching mythology and anatomy as well as neoclassical painting. His pupils included Asmus Jacob Carstens, the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen and the painters Johan Ludvig Lund and Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg.

c. 1780

The commission for the Knights’ Hall at Christiansborg

As royal history painter Abildgaard received a prestigious and lucrative commission for a monumental history of Denmark to fill the Knights’ Hall of Christiansborg Palace. The allegorical and mythological imagery glorified the government, while his teacher Mandelberg supplied the room’s decorations.

1781

Marries Nancy Oxholm; a son is born

Abildgaard married Anna Marie “Nancy” Christiane Oxholm, who that same year bore him a son, Marcus Aurelius. Later, on discovering her affair with the court chamberlain Reinhard von Eppingen, he forced the pair to flee in disgrace across the Sound to Helsingborg in Sweden, and divorced.

c. 1785

Death of his four-year-old son Marcus Aurelius

The painter’s son Marcus Aurelius, born in 1781, lived only to the age of four.

1789

Unanimously elected director of the Academy

After a failed attempt in 1787, Abildgaard was unanimously elected director of the Academy, serving in 1789–1791 (by other accounts until 1792). He had a reputation as a tyrant who took as many of the Academy’s monumental commissions as he could for himself.

1789–1790

Revolutionary ideals in the Knights’ Hall

Inspired by the French Revolution, Abildgaard tried to bring its ideals into the paintings of the Knights’ Hall at Christiansborg, but the King rejected his designs.