Old Master and British Works on Paper
Old Master and British Works on Paper
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg
Virginia is killed by her father
Lot Closed
January 25, 08:13 PM GMT
Estimate
3,000 - 4,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg
Aabenraa 1783 - 1853 Copenhagen
Virginia is killed by her father
Black chalk and pen and grey ink and wash, within pen and brown ink framing lines;
bears inscription in pen and brown ink, lower left: C.W. Eckersberg. Cat. No 136.
276 by 211 mm; 10⅞ by 8⅜ in.
where purchased by Benjamin Wolff (1790-1866), (L.420),
sale, Copenhagen, Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers, The Wolff Collection, 30 May 2018, lot 526
Referred to as the ‘Father of Danish Painting’, Eckersberg was born in Blåkrog in the Southern Jutland region of Denmark. He enrolled in the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1803 with aspirations of becoming a history painter and studied under Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard, who taught him the fundamental principles of neoclassical art. Eckersberg spent invaluable time in France and Italy where he painted ‘en plein air’ and it was his passion for painting from nature that inspired the next generation of Danish artists.
Benjamin Wolff (1790-1866) was a highly erudite, Danish lawyer, who lived in Calcutta between 1817 and 1829. During his time in India, Wolff amassed a great fortune and also began to build what would become one of Denmark’s most revered art collections. In 1829, he moved back to Denmark and bought a substantial house called Engelholm Manor on southern Zealand. Here, he housed his collections which, by the end of his life, comprised more than 2,000 drawings from both the European and Indian schools.
After his death in 1866, Wolff’s drawings remained with his descendants for a further five generations. In May 2018, Brunn Rasmussen Auctioneers in Copenhagen held a major sale of his works (see Provenance).