Fc Kiærschou (1805-1891) Landscape Of Denmark Probably Sollerod

Frederik-Christian KIÆRSCHOU
(Copenhagen, 1805– Copenhagen, 1891)
Landscape of Denmark, probably in Sollerod
Oil on canvas
H. 55 cm; W. 79 cm
Signed and dated lower left - 1867

Kiærschou is a landscape painter who was a student of Eckersberg and Lund at the Royal Academy of Copenhagen, and still belongs to the Golden Age of Danish painting. He exhibited at almost all the Charlottenborg Salons from 1826, remaining anchored in the tradition of a very classical painting, influenced by German Romanticism and also by Dutch painting of the 17th century and artists like Van der Haagen. He is present in all Danish museums, in particular the Staten Museum fur Kunst in Copenhagen, but also in royal collections like Buckingham Palace, or at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.

Our composition is characteristic of the artist, with trees on the sides, framing a green carpet of vegetation in the foreground, otherwise treated in a virtuoso way. More original in his work is this low horizon line, which divides the space in two, and allows him to detail a magnificent series of Danish dwellings: churches, manors, farms ... all giving off a very calming atmosphere. Kiærschou is one of the rare Danish landscape painters of the time not to have traveled to Italy. Apart from the sites in Denmark, his paintings represent the countries he visited: Switzerland, Tyrol and Bavaria, as well as Sweden. Here, it is possibly the surroundings of Sollerod, a small town located about fifteen kilometers north of Copenhagen, that Kiærschou depicts; we can indeed recognise the silhouette of the church, which appears in other paintings by Kiærschou, but with an opposite point of view, dated 1850, 1860 and 1881, the last two being exhibited at the Charlottenborg Salon in 1861 and 1882.