View through a Door to Running Figures
C.W. Eckersberg (Danish, 1783–1853)
1845
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- height 31 cm, width 27 cm, height 42.8 cm, width 38.9 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
This view of running figures incorporates several trends in Eckersberg’s art. The painting belongs to a group of narrative and at times anecdotal works featuring human figures in motion typical of Eckersberg’s late career. These pictures often combine perspectival observation with narrative action. Here, however, the key plot point resides outside of the picture, leaving the narrative unresolved and contributing to the enigmatic nature of the scene. The strict architectural structure testifies to Eckersberg’s many years of working with linear perspective. Indeed, the painting is a reworking of a drawing used in Eckersberg’s 1841 treatise on perspective.
