The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of November 30, 2022

View from the Battery towards the City

1836

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg

(Danish, 1783–1853)

Denmark, 19th century

Graphite, pen and black and gray ink, and brush and gray wash on wove paper

Sheet: 18.5 x 31.5 cm (7 5/16 x 12 3/8 in.)

Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2020.225

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg depicted the view seen in this work, of Copenhagen from the small island of Trekroner, in several other works including a painting in Denmark’s Hirschsprung Collection.

Description

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg is known for initiating Danish painting’s Golden Age—a period of cultural efflorescence during the first half of the 19th century. Marine subjects were among the artist’s favorite, and the primary focus of his work beginning in the 1820s. Dating from this period, this drawing depicts Russian ships viewed from a fortress in Copenhagen’s harbor. In his journal, Eckersberg described making the trip to see the fleet with friends and waiting for the waters to become calm enough for sailing. To convey this experience, he juxtaposed precise perspective of the landscape with expressively rendered clouds.

Inscriptions

Inscription

signed and dated, at lower right: Eckersberg fec. 1836; inscribed on verso: Eckersberg 7 Sept. 1836; perspective indications in graphite across lower border at 4 cm intervals; vertical line through center

Provenance
1836-1853
Estate of the artist [1785-1853], Copenhagen, Denmark
1854
(his sale, Copenhagen, January 1854, no. 375)
?-2015
Private collection, Denmark
November 24, 2015
(sale, Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, November 24, 2015, no. 61)
?-2020
(Le Claire Kunst, Hamburg, Germany, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
2020-
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Conisbee, Philip, Kasper Monrad, and Lene Bøgh Rønberg. Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 1783-1853. Exh. Cat. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2003. Mentioned: p. 145
C.W. Eckersbergs dagbøger 1870-1837. Vol. 1 (Copenhagen: Nyt Nordisk, 2009). Mentioned: p. 703
Dauschek, Anja. Regine Gerhardt, and Vanessa Hirsch. Melbye: Maler des Meeres, Painter of the Ocean. Exh. Cat. Hamburg: Altonaer Museum, 2017. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 65, 96
Kehlembeck, Gerhard and Thomas le Claire. The Danish Golden Age: Ten Drawings from Private Collections. Hamburg: Le Claire Kunst, 2019 Mentioned and reproduced: no. 6
Exhibition history

Melbye: Maler des Meeres, Painter of the Ocean. Altonaer Museum, Hamburg (September 20, 2017 - February 4, 2018).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.225