Strandingen på Anholt

1777–1794

His most productive years

Besides monumental works Abildgaard produced vignettes and illustrations, to Socrates and Ossian among others, designed Old Norse costumes, and did some sculpture, etching and writing.

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.

1792

A design for the Freedom Column

A religious freethinker and advocate of political reform, Abildgaard supported the emancipation of the farmers, helped raise money for the Freedom Column (Frihedsstøtten) and contributed a design for the monument and for two reliefs on its base.