PARIS.- The Louvre offers the public a unique chance to discover the Danish artist, Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard, a leading exponent of Northern European art in the late 18th century. A traveling exhibition (Paris, Hamburg, Copenhagen) on the singular yet universal career of this painter, who was also an architect, draughtsman and decorator, has been mounted for the first time in Europe. The Louvre has brought together about 40 paintings and drawings, as well as a some of his furniture. Though he was a subject of the Dano-Norwegian absolute monarchy, his production was inspired by the political ideas then spreading across Europe, during the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Open to the spirit of his era, his paintings, classical in form but latently Romantic, also contained a glimmering of religious and social criticism.
Abildgaard, witness of his time
Nothing in his modest origins suggested the career Abildgaard would lead. His father, a self-taught man with a passion for natural science, was entrusted with the task of listing ancient Danish monuments. His growing reputation as a scholar did not, however, spare the family from financial hardship, which compelled the two sons to exercise manual trades in order to pursue their studies. Christian became a veterinary surgeon, while Abildgaard gained admission to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen. Based on the French model, the Academy regarded history painting as the highest form of art.
Abildgaard completed his artistic training in Italy (1772-77), where he met two people who had a decisive impact on his life: the Swedish sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel, who introduced him to the Swiss-born Romantic painter associated with the English school, Henry Fuseli. At the time, these two artists were moving away from neoclassicism. However, while Sergel’s influence could be seen in the profoundly psychological situations portrayed in Abildgaard’s Roman paintings, such as The Wounded Philoctetes, the Danish artist’s numerous depictions of single figures, executed with precision amongst symbolic accessories, probably resulted from the drawing sessions he attended at the French Academy, in Rome. On his return from Italy, Abildgaard stopped in Paris, where he studied the painting of Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), the artist he considered to be the finest exponent of history painting.
Despite their underlying Romanticism, most of Abilgaard’s works belonged in the elevated intellectual spheres of history painting, with all the lofty erudition and disciplined ambition which that implied. He thus played a major role in neoclassicism’s development in Denmark and was regarded as the “painter philosopher” of the period. Erudition and lofty vision were, in fact, the hallmarks of his art, in varying degrees. However, in Abildgaard’s painting, history and political satire went hand in hand: tradition vied with rebellion.
Exhibition curators: Elisabeth Foucart-Walter, head curator, Department of Paintings, at the Louvre, and Thomas Lederballe, curator Department of Graphic Arts, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.
