Nicolai AbildgaardDanish, 1743–1809Studie af en hånd
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
Copenhagen, Denmark
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- KKSgb3612
In the catalog
Sources
- SMK
- Image: SMK — National Gallery of Denmark — public domain
Meanwhile, in the life of Nicolai Abildgaard
The whole life1772–1777
Sergel and Füssli: a turn towards Romanticism
In the company of the Swedish sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel and the painter Johann Heinrich Füssli, Abildgaard began to move away from academic classicism and came to love Shakespeare, Homer and Ossian. Themes from Greek and Norse mythology placed him at the forefront of Nordic Romanticism.
1772–1777 · Workplace
Rome
1776
A trip to Naples with Jens Juel
From Rome Abildgaard made a side trip to Naples with Jens Juel. Juel’s portrait of Abildgaard was turned into a medallion by Abildgaard’s friend Johan Tobias Sergel.
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.
