Jump to content

A Young Artist (Ditlev Blunck) Examining a Sketch in a Mirror

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A young artist (Ditlev Blunck) considers a sketch in a mirror
Danish: En ung kunstner (Ditlev Blunck) betragter en skitse i et spejl
ArtistWilhelm Bendz
Year1826 (1826)
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions98 cm × 85 cm (39 in × 33 in)
LocationStatens Museum for Kunst, København
Websitewww.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/samlingerne/vaerk/B255

A young artist (Ditlev Blunck) considers a sketch in a mirror is a painting by Wilhelm Bendz from 1826; it is one of the series of Danish Golden Age portraits of artists.[1]

Work's title

[edit]

The painting shows young Ditlev Blunck taking a break to examine a sketch for a portrait of George Valtin Sonne painting his brother, engraver Carl Edvard Sonne,[2] by holding it up in front of a mirror to see if the composition works.

Genesis

[edit]

The painting was executed in 1826 at time when Wilhelm Bendz was preoccupied by artists' new role; no longer craftsmen but instead considered intellectuals, artists in the modern sense of the word. During the 1820s he painted a series of portraits of artists at work. Here the model is Bendz's fellow student, Ditlev Blunck, in the process of painting a portrait of the painter Jørgen Sonne.

Ditlev Blunck, A bataillemaler, Jørgen Sonne (1801-90) in his study from 1824-1827, NationalStatens Museum for Kunst
Ditlev Blunck, Portrait of the engraver Carl Edvard Sonne, ca. 1826 Statens Museum for Kunst

Reason

[edit]

The painting shows a time when painters took themselves seriously as working artists. The image of Blunck standing in a packed room surrounded by his tools, paintbox, palette and easel, skull and sketchpad, signals that his work is serious, and requires thorough study before execution.

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Jens Peter Munk: ‘Kunstnerportræt – selvportræt’, in: Meddelelser fra Thorvaldsens Museum, 1994, p. 103-113.
  2. ^ Patricia G. Berman, Nyt lys over 1800-tallets maleri, ISBN 978-87-1123245-3, side 63

Sources

[edit]
[edit]