Martinus Christian Wesseltoft Rørbye | |
|---|---|
 Portraitstudy of the Painter Rörby, byConstantin Hansen (1837) | |
| Born | (1803-05-17)17 May 1803 Drammen, Norway |
| Died | 29 August 1848(1848-08-29) (aged 45) Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Resting place | Cemetery of Holmen |
| Education | Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Danish Golden Age |
Martinus Christian Wesseltoft Rørbye (Danish:[mɑːˈtsʰiːnusˈʁɶɐ̯ˌpyˀ]; 17 May 1803 – 29 August 1848) was aDanish painter, known both forgenre works and landscapes. He was a central figure of theGolden Age of Danish painting during the first half of the 19th century.
The most traveled of the Danish Golden Age painters, he traveled both north toNorway andSweden and south toItaly, Greece andConstantinople. He was also the first Danish painter to take to painting inSkagen at the northern top ofJutland, almost half a century before the thriving community ofSkagen Painters formed and came to fame, throughMichael Ancher,Anna Ancher andP.S. Krøyer.
Martinus Rørbye was born inDrammen inNorway on 17 May 1803[1] to Danish parents Ferdinand Henrik Rørbye and his wife Frederikke Eleonore Catherine de Stockfleth. Martinus was not inclined to schooling, but in 1820 started his studies at theRoyal Danish Academy of Fine Arts at 17 years of age. He studied underChristian August Lorentzen andChristoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, a strong influence on a generation of artists during theDanish Golden Age. Rørbye was a favorite student of Eckersberg, and they formed a close association. He took to Eckersberg's careful attention to nature and his strivings to capture details realistically. He was also greatly influenced by Lorentzen's use of color.
He won the Academy's small silver medal in 1824, and the large silver medal in 1828. He competed for the gold medal and won a cash prize. In 1829 he won the small gold medal for his paintingChrist healing the blind, which remains in the ownership of the Royal Danish Academy. He never won the large gold medal in spite of repeated attempts.
View from the Artist's Window, is a painting by a young Rørbye around 1825, heralding the many travels he would later make with its depiction of a caged bird in an open window, on the border between the safety of his parents' home and the wide, unknown world represented by a berthed ship.[2]
Rørbye first exhibited his paintings atCharlottenborg in 1824 and would do so almost every year until 1848. His works were modestly priced, and he found sufficient buyers for his pieces. The majority of his works in the 1820s consisted of views from Copenhagen and the island ofZealand, although he also painted a number of portraits including one of Lorentzen, his painting instructor.
Twice, in 1830 and 1832, he traveled to Norway. On the first of these journeys he visitedJutland on the way, a rare destination for painters at that time. On 31 May 1830 he went toÅrhus on the paddle steamerDania. Another passenger on the ship wasHans Christian Andersen and the two artists decided to travel together for a while. From Århus they went north, staying at theRosenholm,Clausholm andTjele estates.[3] After that, Rørbye parted with Andersen, continuing to the remote and seldom-visitedThy province of north-western Jutland to visit relatives inThisted. From his journals it can be concluded that he found the place deeply exotic, making detailed sketches and notes of everything from women's costumes and markets to the scenery. However, he found the landscape unsuitable for painting due to the lack of trees. On 7 July he left Thisted bound for Norway.[3]
In Norway he paintedlandscapes under the influence ofJohan Christian Dahl andCaspar David Friedrich.
In 1834 Rørbye received a travel scholarship from the Academy on account of his talents as aportraitist. He traveled by way of theNetherlands and France to Rome, In Paris he metPeter Andreas Heiberg,August Bournonville and the French painterJean Auguste Dominique Ingres.
When he arrived in Rome, he joined the city's thriving Danish artists community which hadBertel Thorvaldsen as its central figure.A Group of Danish Artists in Rome, is a painting depicting the artist in Rome, painted byConstantin Hansen. Rørbye is number two from the left sitting behindBindesbøll who is lying on the floor with afez he often wore after their visit toConstantinople. Also appearing in the picture are the painter himself,Marstrand,Küchler,Blunck andJørgen Sonne, sitting on the table.
In Italy he traveled toSorrento, theSabine Mountains, andSicily.The following year Rørbye traveled toAthens accompanied by the architectMichael Gottlieb Bindesbøll, one of the compatriots he had met in Rome. From there they continued toConstantinople in theOttoman Empire, a rare adventure in those days. He sketched prodigiously during his travels.
In 1837 he returned home to Copenhagen. His excellentorientalist studies from these exotic locales brought him the Danish public's attention. The Academy, recognizing the excellence of his work during his travels, invited him to apply for membership by submitting a painting. His task was to create a Turkish folk scene. His motif came from a study of aCaravan near Smyrna. It was finished in 1838 and he was unanimously voted into the Academy. His studies from Greece and Turkey continued to serve as the basis for his creative output. In this regard he admired the work of French painterHorace Vernet.
That same year at the Spring Exhibition he received theExhibition Medal, the first time it had been given out, for a painting of a scene outside theKılıç Ali Pasha Complex,A Turkish notary witnesses a marriage contract. Typical of Rørbye are the rich colours and careful attention to detail.[4]
He married Rose Frederikke Schiøtt on 29 August 1839. His health was not good, however, and that same autumn he traveled again to Italy in the hope of renewing his strength. He painted "Torvet i Amalfi" ("The plaza in Amalfi") during this stay, and it was exhibited in 1842. He returned home in 1841.
He gave private painting lessons toChristen Dalsgaard, and in 1844 became professor at the Academy's school of modelling. His health deteriorated, and he died on 29 August 1848 in Copenhagen, leaving his young wife widowed and with several small children. She exhibited twelve of his paintings, mostly of Italian subjects, in 1849.
He is remembered for his genre paintings, his landscapes and hisarchitectural paintings, as well as for the many sketches he made during his numerous travels. He painted numerous scenes of life in Copenhagen, as well as large compositions showing Italian and Turkish landscapes and scenes of folk life. He painted few portraits.
He was one of the most traveled of the Golden Age painters, and distinguished his artistic production by his interpretations of lands rarely explored at that time for their artistic motifs, as well as for his anecdotal genre paintings depicting the Copenhagen of his day.
Rørbye visitedSkagen on three occasions, painting the local fishermen and theNorth Sea environs. The first time was in 1833, the year before he set out on his travels to the Mediterranean area and almost half a century before the community ofSkagen Painters formed in the town and came to fame. He returned to Skagen towards the end of his life, in the summers of 1847 and 1848. His painting ofMen of Skagen on a summer evening in fair weather was one of the last he completed.His works appear in a number of Danish art museums, including theDanish National Gallery (Statens Museum for Kunst), theNy Carlsberg Glyptotek, and theHirschsprung Collection.
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