Denmark's Golden Age 1800-50: Hansen

The Golden Age (c1800-50) was an era of impressive creat­ivity in Denmark. Although Copenhagen had suffered from fires, bomb­ard­ment and bank­ruptcy, the centre of Denmark's intell­ectual life, first experienced huge fir­es in 1794 and 1795 which dest­royed both Chr­is­tiansborg Palace­ and much of the inner city. The arts took on a new era of cr­eat­ivity, imbued by German Romanticism. Danes from the arts and scienc­es became in­volved in a new era of Roman­tic nation­al­ism. Change became apparent, esp­ in painting. 

Wilhelm Bendz, another student of Eckersberg
Artist in the Evening at Finck's Coffee House 

in MunichThorvaldsen Museum, 1832

The early C19th was a tough time for Denmark-Norway. The crucial fig­ure was Christoffer Eckers­berg who taught at the Acad­emy­ from 1818-53, had an imp­or­t­ant in­fluence on the next gen­erat­ion, including Wilh­elm Bendz and Const­antin Hansen. While art had prev­iously served the monarchy and the Establish­ment, Henrik Steffens (1773–1845) and his st­udents real­ised that the moneyed classes were increas­ingly gaining pow­er and influence, now industr­ial­isa­tion was starting. Grand historical art gave way to more appealing and less grand art; genre painting em­er­ged, with int­eriors and portraits depicting the middle and upper class­es. Students liked to stud­y in Paris with Jacques-Louis David.

Copenhagen on Fire by CW Eck­er­s­berg (1807) showed how Copenhagen exp­erienced the fir­es. In the Golden Age, Copen­hagen in particular acqu­ired a new look as ar­chitects inspired by neo-classicism repaired much of the damage caused by fire in 1795 and by British bombardment of the city. In 1800 Hansen was charged with rebuilding the Pa­l­ace!

In 1801, because of the coun­try's invo­l­vement in the League of Armed Neutrality, the Royal Navy success­fully att­acked a Danish fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen. In 1807, on rum­ours that the French might force Denmark-Norway to close the Bal­tic to their shipping, the British bom­barded and burned large port­ions of Copenhagen. Then in 1813, because the country couldn’t support the war costs, the Danish-Norwegian gov­ernment declared bankruptcy. Wor­se, Norway ceased to be part of the Oldenburg realms when it was ceded to Sweden in Treaty of Kiel (1814).

Yet these crises provided new prospects for Copenhagen. Ar­chitects and planners wid­ened the streets where beautifully desig­ned Neoclass­ical buildings became smarter. With 100,000 people, the smallish city had been built within the confines of the old ramp­arts.

So the lead­ing figures met sharing ideas, unit­ing arts & scien­ces. The main proponent of Classicism in the Golden age was Constantin Han­sen who de­v­eloped a severe style, with large surfaces, in­sp­ired by ancient Greek & Roman architecture. From 1800 he was in charge of all major building projects in Copenhagen where he designed Copen­hagen’s Townhall and Court­house (1805–15), and rebuilt the Church of Our Lady and the square (1811–29). Interior scenes and small portrait gr­oups were also common, with dom­estic objects and furniture, often the art­ist's circle of friends. Danish-trained leader of Ger­man Rom­antic painting Cas­p­ar David Fried­rich was import­ant in spread­ing infl­uence in Germany.

The Golden Age launched a distinct national style for the first time since the Middle Ages. Its style drew on Dutch Gol­d­en Age painting, es­pecially land­scape painting, depicting northern light that was soft, with strong colour contrasts. An idealised version of real­ity.

Const­antin Hansen (1804–80) was born in Rome, son of portrait paint­er Hans Han­sen. The family soon moved to Vienna where Wolfgang Am­ad­eus Mozart’s wid­­ow was his godmother, and with­­in a year, they moved to Co­p­­enhagen. Constantin studied Archit­ect­ure at the Building Sch­ool of the Royal Danish Ac­ademy of Art at 12, but later changed to paint­ing, begin­ning his tr­aining under Christoffer Eckersberg.

Constantin was very in­t­er­­est­ed in literature and mythol­ogy, in­spired by Niels Høyen who want­ed to recr­eate a national hist­or­ical art based on Norse myth­ol­ogy. Høyen, who taught at the Academy, enc­ouraged his st­udents to do landscape painting, especially Danish coun­try scenes.

Paintings by Eckersberg, Ch­risten Købke and Constantin Hansen, using their Italian views, showed the imp­ortant as­p­ects which revealed the Danish Gol­d­­en Age creative process. In 1835 Hansen received a 3-year salary to travel abroad, taking him via Ber­l­in, Dresden, Prague, Nur­emberg and Munich en route to Italy, where he stayed longer in Ro­me, Nap­les and Pomp­eii, and travelled with fellow-Danes. 

Constantin Hansen
A Group of Danish Artists in Rome, 1837
National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen

Copenhagen Art Union commissioned a Hansen painting, A Group of Danish Artists in Rome 1837. This ser­ious work stood out among the pictures of carefree Italian-living that Danish audien­ces enjoyed. The Danish paint­ers and archit­ec­ts in the Rom­an hotel room were Hansen him­­self, Mic­h­­ael Bin­­­d­es­bøll, Mart­inus Rør­b­ye, Wilhelm Marstrand, Küch­ler, Ditlev Blun­ck, Jørg­en Son­ne were gathered to soc­ialise together; but the purpose of the assem­b­ly was to dis­cuss art! Arch­itect Michael Bindes­bøll (1800-56) was re­l­ating the exper­ien­ces of his Greek tra­v­els while the other artists list­en­ed with vary­ing deg­rees of attent­ion. Han­s­en was very ambitious, being insp­ired by Renaissance dep­ictions of artists, suit­ing them to cont­em­porary ideals. He also painted many al­­t­ar­pieces and portr­aits eg Fathers of the  Dan­ish Constituent Assem­bly of 1848. 

 

Fathers of the Dan­ish Constituent Assem­bly 1848

painted by Hansen in 1861

Frederiksborg Museum, Copenhagen

The Golden Age had also seen the develop­ment of Neoclassical Danish arch­itecture, mus­ic, ballet, lit­er­at­ure (eg Hans Ch­ristian And­er­sen), philosophy (eg Søren Kierk­eg­aard) and scien­ce. The Golden Age thus had a profound effect across life in Denmark and even outside.

End of the Golden Age
Danish culture suffered from the First Schleswig War (1848-51). Add­it­ionally, polit­ical reforms involved the end of the ab­solute monarchy in 1848 and the adoption of the Danish constitution in 1849. Finally note that the extension of Copenhagen beyond the old ramparts, during the 1850s, enabled urban exp­an­sion.