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Self-Portrait
C.W. Eckersberg (Danish, 1783–1853)
1807-1810
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- height 33 cm, width 26 cm, height 40.7 cm, width 34 cm
- Culture
- Danish
- Museum
- SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark: SMK waives its rights in this photograph, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
About this work
The painting is one of two known painted self-portraits by the artist. The dating has been a matter of some dispute. Several scholars (Weilbach 1872; Madsen 1901; Skovgaard 1983; Bramsen 1983; Bøgh Rønberg 2003) have dated it around 1803, i.e. just after Eckersberg arrived in Copenhagen, while others maintain that this was the self-portrait that the artist sent home from Paris in 1811 (Hannover, 1898; Hornung & Monrad 2005). X-ray studies show that the self-portrait was painted on top of another, unfinished scene: a landscape or city scene with prominent cloud formations. Both facts suggest that the painting should be dated prior to Eckersberg’s departure for Paris in 1810. No corresponding clouds appear in any known landscapes by his hand; they may be interpreted as plumes of smoke, and it is likely that the painting underneath the portrait is an incomplete depiction of the bombardment of Copenhagen. This would mean that the self-portrait was presumably executed between 1807 and 1810.
