Getty Presents Beyond the Light: Identity and Place in 19th-Century Danish Art

Getty presents Beyond the Light: Identity and Place in 19th-Century Danish Art, an exhibition of tranquil landscapes, and incisive portraits that tells the story of how artists helped forge Denmark’s modern cultural identity.

Organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK) in Copenhagen, the exhibition features over 80 drawings, sketchbooks, oil sketches, and paintings. It will be on view at the Getty Center from May 23 to August 20, 2023.

During an era marked by military defeat, financial collapse and national disintegration, 19th-century Danish artists examined themselves, their country, and their culture with heightened scrutiny. The seemingly peaceful and intimate subjects they portrayed convey notions of belonging and displacement as Denmark was transforming into a smaller, somewhat marginalized country at the edge of Europe.

“It is remarkable to see in this exhibition how Danish art and culture reached new heights of sophistication and insight at a time when Denmark as a country was in economic and political decline,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the Getty Museum. “Despite, and perhaps because of, this challenging environment, a rich and distinctive school of Danish painting emerged that focused on the landscape, seascape, built environment, and portraiture of their times—a body of work that is now seen as one of the high points of Danish cultural achievement. The intimate connection between artistic exploration and national identity is one that we expect will resonate with Getty audiences.”

The exhibition explores the evolution of Danish art from approximately 1809 to 1912. Most artists of the period trained at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, forging a tight-knit community that led to Denmark’s first national artistic style. Artist Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg became professor of the Academy in 1818 and was instrumental in creating a curriculum that encouraged students to cultivate a devotion to mathematical perspective and to drawing from nature.

With styles fluctuating between realism and idealism, the first section of the exhibition presents portraits of individuals and groups of artists, such as Constantin Hansen’s painting A Group of Danish Artists in Rome, which features the comrades collaborating abroad.

The second section explores how art expressed a sense of national identity emerging in Denmark in the years following economic disaster, and political defeat. Artists focused on subjects they regarded as distinctly Danish, from buildings and interiors to the topography of Copenhagen—all to elevate Danish history, customs, culture, and language. Examples include Christen Købke’s One of the Small Towers on Frederiksborg Castle and Martinus Rørbye’s Viborg, Seen from Asmild Klosterhave near Søndersø. This section includes Getty’s recently acquired painting Interior with an Easel by Vilhelm Hammershøi.

Denmark is nearly surrounded by water, with seascapes among the most popular subjects in Danish art. The third section embraces the country’s strong relationship to the sea, including the exhibition’s largest work, Copenhagen Harbor by Moonlight by Johan Christian Dahl. Also on view are landscapes that evoke the past, such as Johan Thomas Lundbye’s Refsnæs, Coastscape, which depicts one of Denmark’s Stone Age dolmens surrounded by rolling hills, steep cliffs, and a lengthy coastline.

The fourth and final section takes visitors outside Denmark as artists from The Royal Danish Academy traveled to foreign lands such as France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Turkey. They studied and depicted the picturesque sites, the local inhabitants, and the patterns of weather and of light so different from those of their native land. One of the more popular subjects was the architectural ruins of ancient Rome, evident in Købke’s The Forum, Pompeii, with Vesuvius in the Distance.

“Danish art and culture are not widely represented or studied in America, so this exhibition offers a rare treat,” says Stephanie Schrader, curator of drawings at the Getty Museum. “This is Getty’s first exhibition solely featuring Danish art and we’re grateful to partner with The Met and SMK to display these exquisite works for the public to enjoy.”

Beyond the Light: Identity and Place in 19th-Century Danish Art is curated by Stephanie Schrader, curator of drawings at the Getty Museum, in collaboration with Freyda Spira, former associate curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and current Robert L. Solley curator of prints and drawings at Yale University Art Gallery, along with Thomas Lederballe, chief curator, senior researcher, SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark.

On July 16, the lecture Hammershøi’s Shadow will complement the exhibition, offering a rich presentation by Dr. Bridget Alsdorf who will explore Hammershøi’s work and influence.

The exhibition was first shown at The Met from January 26 to April 16, 2023.