Constantin Hansen - Foreign Study

Foreign Study

In 1835 he received a two-year stipend to travel abroad, which was followed up by an additional year's stipend. His travels took him through Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Nuremberg and Munich on his way to Italy, where he travelled extensively and stayed longer periods in Rome, Naples and Pompeii. In Italy he met fellow Dane, the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. He travelled with other Danish artists, including Jørgen Roed, Christen Købke and decorative painter Georg Christian Hilker. The Copenhagen Art Union (Kunstforening) commissioned a painting from Hansen in 1837. He provided them with "A Company of Danish Artists in Rome" (Et Selskab af danske Kunstnere i Rom). In addition he painted Italian folk scenes, and studies of Roman antiquities and architecture that reflect Eckersberg's spirit.

After eight years in Italy he finally returned to Denmark, staying briefly in Munich where he studied the technique of fresco painting, in anticipation of a commission, along with Georg Hilker, to decorate the University of Copenhagen's vestibule on Frue Plads. This work continued from 1844-1853. Hansen painted the mythological figures, while Hilker painted the decorations and frameworks.

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