(1783 Blåkrog – Copenhagen 1853)
View to the south from Helsingørs [Elsinore] Rhed, with a Danish corvette [Flora] at anchor, and some other smaller ships partly under sail and partly at anchor
Oil n canvas
56 x 87 cm
Signed and dated on lower right : « E. 1830 »
Painted between 3 and 29 september 1830
PROVENANCE : Acquired by Kunstforeningen (Art Association), Copenhagen, directly from the artist. Won at Kunstforeningen’s lottery 1830 by Councilor of State Just Henrik Mundt (1782-1859); his brother, professor Carl Emil Mundt (1802-1873); his son Doctor Christopher Mundt (1844-1925), and Sophie Nathalie Mundt (1851-1920), Copenhagen, by 1895; their son Holger Mundt (1937), architect, and Harriet Mundt (1889-1975); thence by family descent. Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, 1 December 1998, lot 225.Christies, New York, May 2024, lot 41.
Exhibition :Udstilling af Malerier, af œldre og yngre danske Kunstnere, hvoraf Indtœgten er bestemt til Anvendelse ved Frederiksborg Slots Gjenopførelse, Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen, 1860 no. 85. Udstilling af C.W. Eckersberg’s Malerier, exhibition catalogue, Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen, 1895 (October – November 1895), no. 238. Charlottenburg, Sønderjysk Udstilling paa Charlottenborg, 1937, no. 108
Referring to this painting, on Friday, 3. September 1830, Eckersberg notes in his diary, that he ‘started on a new painting, a seascape’ (Villadsen, p. 415) and, on Wednesday, 29. September, he ‘finished today with the seascape, it represents, View towards the South from Helsingöers Reed, with a Danish Corvet at Anchors, and some other smaller Ships partly under Sail and partly at Anchors’ (Villadsen, p. 418). Villadsen identifies the mentioned seascape as this painting (Villadsen, p. 418, footnote 2: oil on canvas, 56 x 86 cm, inscribed ‘E. 1830’) and refers to a drawing after this painting (ink and wash, 230 x 315 mm, inscribed: ‘E. 1830’, owner unknown, Kunstforen. Aukt. W&M, 1833, location unkown). According to Hannover (1898, no. 431) the drawing was in the collection of the Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen.
The main ship on this painting is Flora, one of three corvettes which were out in 1830.
Flora was launched in Gammelholm, Copenhagen, on 15 July 1826 and was included in the fleet on 1 April 1830, just over five months before Eckersberg bagan this painting. It was 37.51 m long and 9.18 m wide, carried twenty 18-pounder guns, six 4-pounder Howitzers and had a capacity for a crew of 130 men. It remained in the Danish fleet until 1856. Hesingør Rhed, or ‘red’, is an area outside the port where ships which have a draft too deep to enter Helsingør Harbour can lie at anchor.
View to the south from Helsingørs Rhed was ‘bought by the Kunstforeningen in its time’ (Under Dannebrog, October 1942, p. 94, ill.), acquired by the Councilor of State Just Henrik Mundt (1782-1859) in the same year it was painted and remained in his family until 1998. It was in painted in 1830, during the height of Eckersberg’s career in the 1820s and 1830s, when he became the leading painter of the Danish ‘Golden Age’ (c.1800-1850). Due to the significant influence he had on Danish painters in the second quarter of the nineteenth century in his capacity as a professor at the Academy, when he also taught Christian Købke (1810-1848), he is referred to as ‘the father of Danish painting’. He is best known for his landscapes, portraits and marine paintings, such as this painting.