Ditlev Blunck | |
|---|---|
 Self-portrait as Legionnaire (1848) | |
| Born | (1798-06-22)22 June 1798 |
| Died | 7 January 1853(1853-01-07) (aged 54) |
| Education | Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts,Copenhagen Royal Academy of Fine Arts,Munich |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Danish Golden Age |
Ditlev Conrad Blunck (22 June 1798 – 7 January 1853) was aDanish-Germanpainter associated with theDanish Golden Age during the first half of the 19th century.
Blunck was born in 1798 inMünsterdorf inHolstein, at that time a duchy with a largely German-speaking populace ruled by Denmark. In 1814 he began his studies at theRoyal Danish Academy of Art inCopenhagen as a student ofC.A. Lorentzen andC.W. Eckersberg. He was trained concurrently with fellow studentsWilhelm Bendz,Ernst Meyer, andAlbert Küchler. Presumably dissatisfied with the Danish Academy, Blunck moved in 1818 toMunich and enrolled at theRoyal Academy of Fine Arts to train in history painting. He studied in Bavaria for two years before returning to Copenhagen.
Back inDenmark, Blunck became a student of the recently appointedJ. L. Lund, aRomantic historical painter who was to become a major influence on his development. Thus, it was also mostly history painting that marked Blunck's early work. Later, throughgenre painting, Blunck became representative of the kind of everyday realism that was to appear in Danish art in the mid-1820s.
Lund's influence grew particularly clear during Blunck's stay inGermany beginning in 1828. InBerlin,Munich, andDresden, he became acquainted with Lund's artist-friends, including the famed Romantic painterCaspar David Friedrich.
Blunck's sojourns abroad also brought him repeatedly toRome, where he spent almost ten years. Here, he joined the group of Danish artists aroundBertel Thorvaldsen and produced several of his major paintings, includingDanish Artists in the Roman Inn La Gensola (1837). Deeply influenced by the works ofJohann Friedrich Overbeck in Rome, Blunck began to devote himself to religious motifs and developed a painting style that was strongly influenced by theNazarene movement, unusual among Danish painters.
In 1840, he was expelled from Denmark due tohomosexual acts.[1] As a result, he left the country, and after visits to his native region and to Munich, he settled in Vienna in 1841. His criminal record and his decision to take up arms against Denmark in theFirst Schleswig War (1848-1852) made him persona non grata in Denmark, and his reputation has suffered to the present day. Nonetheless, he was commissioned by KingChristian VIII of Denmark to paint the four-part cycle "The Ages of Man" (1840–45) for theRoyal Painting Collection.
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