COPENHAGEN.- The Glyptotek has added a rare and significant work to its collection: Florentine Standing before a Mirror by Salomon (Sally) Ruben Henriques. The painting is from the Danish Golden Age and contributes to a more nuanced view of the female body during this fascinating period of Danish art and cultural history.


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Salomon Ruben Henriques (1815 – 1886) was a student of the famous Danish Golden Age master C.W. Eckersberg. The Glyptotek’s new acquisition, Florentine Standing before a Mirror (1841), is an outstanding example of Eckersberg’s teaching of young artists and the centrality of serial model studies, a method that underwent a major shift during this period. The story of the creation of Henriques’ painting is well documented, and can be traced back to the summer schools Eckerberg held and described in his diaries. Florentine was one of the period’s most popular models, portrayed by multiple artists. If the motif seems familiar, it could be because Eckersberg himself painted a similar model study: A Nude Woman Doing Her Hair in front of a Mirror (1841), which can be seen in Copenhagen’s Hirschsprung Collection.

In the Looking Glass and into a New Era

In Henriques’ painting Florentine is seen from behind in front of a mirror. Her hair is pulled back in a bun, and frames her face. Her gaze is lowered and her left breast discreetly exposed. A gathered white cloth covers the lower part of her otherwise naked back. One hand is touching a bead necklace, and the other her hair. The light falls obliquely from the left creating an interplay of light and shadow that gives the hair, skin and cloth a life-like tactility. The work is a study in beauty and shyness and marks the advent of female nudes in classes at the art academy.

Before the 1820s only male models were allowed to pose naked at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. A series of reforms, however, permitted the use of nude female models, a shift documented by Henriques’ painting.

As well as being an exercise in the lifelike rendering of the body, early 19th-century works of this kind also demonstrated the increasing inclusion of painterly elements, such as light and cloth, in the model’s surroundings. Another feature of the period’s model studies is the use of poses based on the sculptures of antiquity.

A Boost to the Glyptotek’s Danish Collection

“The work by Henriques is particularly interesting because it portrays the body through the genre of the model study and classical ideals of the past, at the same time as departing from the contemporary norm. The work is a major boost to our collection of Danish paintings in terms of quality and what it tells us about the development of Danish art. It is a fascinating work artistically, but also as a portrayal of the role of women in art and society. Henriques’ model study is particularly important in light of the museum’s existing collection of model paintings from the same period and the portrayal of the body in the sculpture of antiquity. As such it represents a link between our collections of ancient art and works from the 19th century,” says director of the Glyptotek Gertrud Hvidberg-Hansen.

It is the first time the museum acquires a work by the painter Salomon Ruben Henriques. He is underrepresented at Danish museums, so the Glyptotek’s acquisition also represents an important enhancement of our knowledge of an artist otherwise overlooked in the Danish museum landscape.

The painting can be seen in the presentation of the collection Danish Art 1780-1930 at the Glyptotek.

Salomon (Sally) Ruben Henriques (1815–1886) was a Danish painter from Copenhagen’s Jewish bourgeoisie. He started studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1836 then its model school the following year. He exhibited at the Spring Exhibition at Charlottenborg in 1842 and was one of the founders of the art association Kunstforeningen af 18. November – an initiative demonstrating his engagement in Danish art circles of the period.

Henriques’ career as an artist was short-lived and he has not left many works to posterity. After his last exhibition in 1845 he changed track and became a painter and decorator, scene painter and later an antiques dealer. The Henriques family were part of the Copenhagen art scene. His brothers Nathan and Samuel and niece Marie Henriques were also artists.

Eckersberg’s Summer School

C.W. Eckersberg gathered his students for classes during the summer holidays. It was here young artists like Sally Henriques had the chance to refine the art of portraying the human body. Henriques’ painting can be traced back to Eckersberg’s 1841 summer school where students made portraits of nude models, often the model Florentine. Henriques participated in two sessions with Florentine. The painting acquired by the Glyptotek can be linked to the second in August 1841.

Comparisons with L.A. Smith’s Female Model before a Mirror (1841, Collection of John L. Loeb Jr.) and Eckersberg’s A Nude Woman Doing Her Hair before a Mirror (1841, The Hirschsprung Collection) show that all three are variations on Florentine in the same pose. Henriques’ portrait is more daring, showing her entire face and bared breast more clearly in the mirror than both other artists.



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