Johan Fredrik Eckersberg
Johan Fredrik Eckerberg ( born June 16, 1822 in Drammen, † July 13, 1870 in Bærum ) was a Norwegian painter of national romanticism and the Düsseldorf School.
His parents were the merchant Knud Eckerberg (* 1792) and his wife Marie Cathrine Rude (* 1795). On October 2, 1850, he married Laura Martine Hansen ( * December 27, 1821, † March 23, 1878 ), daughter of Lars Hansen brand Tenders and his wife Anne Karine Bodin.
Eckerberg should be like his businessman father. Instead, he became a major artist in transition from romanticism to realism.
He was not a good student and was sent at age 16 to the Netherlands, learn to play the former trade language. On a visit to Amsterdam he came in contact with the painting. He was immediately thrilled to be procured, the art supplies and began to copy the old masters. 1841, his father called him home to put him in his agency in Christiania. Outside his work he sat drawing and painting continued, came in 1843 to the Royal School of Drawing and became a pupil of John Flintoe. In the summer of 1846, he was allowed to accompany Hans Gude and August Cappelen on a trip to Gudbrandsdal. The study tour was of great importance for the Norwegian landscape painting. Thus, the high mountain motifs became a permanent romantic theme.
In the same autumn he received a state scholarship for two years and moved to Dusseldorf, where he was a pupil of Johann Wilhelm Schirmer at the Art Academy. Its intricate theories did not like the more sober Eckerberg, and after two years he returned. From 1848 he lived apart from a two-year stay from 1852 to 1854 on Madeira because of his tuberculosis and a half years in Dusseldorf in Christiania. As a member of the circle, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, he was one of the best fairy tale illustrators. 1850 to 1851 he delivered a series of drawings to Asbjørnsen collection of folk and children's fairy tales. In Madeira he created Views in the Islands of Madeira, a series of lithographs, but did not bring the hoped-for financial success. 1854 to 1856 he worked again in Dusseldorf. His family probably returned due to his poor health back home. His economic conditions were bad. He now came also back to Norway. In Norway, there was a lack of a training center for painters. The Royal Academy was not enough. So he founded in 1859, despite his tuberculosis, a school of painting in Christiania. From 1863 the school received a government subsidy. Many famous painters were his pupils, for example, Gerhard Munthe and Christian Skredsvig.
In 1850 he was a member of " Det Norske Academy of Fine Arts ", which formed the principal of art school. He was also a member of the Director National Gallery and from 1864 by " Christiania Kunstforening ".
Eckerberg lived in the heyday of the Norwegian romantic. While other painters of the time essentially painted impressive high mountain motifs, he also took up open landscapes Ostnorwegens. His paintings are characterized by large detail without painterly effects. He left little imagination come to fruition, but exercise sobriety and decided not to exaggerate the nature motifs artificial. In this way, he had a great influence on his students and is considered a pioneer of realism in landscape painting. He painted his most important pictures in the 1860s, about the image in the view of Valle Setesdalen (1852 ), one of his most challenging works and large -designed landscape composition is required in the tradition of Schirmer and Gude.
Eckerberg 1870 Knights of St. Olav's Order and the Knights of the Wasaordens.
He died at age 48 of tuberculosis.