Landscape with a Stile. The Isle of Møn
C.W. Eckersberg (Danish, 1783–1853)
1810
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- height 58 cm, width 74.8 cm, height 72.4 cm, width 89.3 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
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
About this work
Eckersberg would have picked this scene while standing near the Cliffs of Møn, looking west out across the island. The painting is based on a drawing made in bright daylight in front of the scene in July of 1810 [cat.104]. The half-dead tree was obviously added in the preliminary drawing, while the time of day was changed while Eckersberg was painting in his Copenhagen studio. The solitary tree and the sunset sky may both have been inspired by Jens Juel’s View from Veyrier over Lake Geneva towards the Jura mountains (1779?) which was the property of the engraver Clemens at the time (Thorvaldsens Museum; cf. Monrad 1999 & 2000). Like Juel, Eckersberg followed the precepts of picturesque landscape painting here, and like him he chose to depict landscapes that had been cultivated by man, rather than completely unspoilt countryside (cf. Mortensen 2011).
