Johan Fredrik Eckersberg

Johan Fredrik Eckersberg is an essential and central artist. He is mainly known for his evocative Norwegian motifs, which are taken from the high mountains, forests and valleys, glaciers and fjords, and the occasional farm and building.

Eckersberg received his education at Den Kongelige Norske Kunstskole (Art School in Christiania) under Johannes Flintoe 1843–46 and at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Johann Wilhelm Schirmer 1846–48. In Düsseldorf, he also received proofreading and guidance from Hans Gude, from whom he drew much inspiration. August Cappelen was also an important source of inspiration. Because Norway did not yet have an art academy, artists had to go abroad to get their education, mainly to the art academies in Dresden and Düsseldorf.

On their study trips around Norway, they mainly took motifs from nature and folk life. In 1859, Eckersberg established a painting school in Lille Grensen in Christiania, which he ran until his death in 1870. It had a great influence on Norwegian artistic life and was continued by Knud Bergslien and Morten Müller.

Johan Fredrik Eckersberg participated in a number of collective exhibitions in Christiania, Bergen, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Paris, and Vienna, as well as at the World Exhibition in London (1862), but he never had a solo exhibition during his lifetime. Only in 1884, 14 years after his death, did the Christiania Art Association show a separate exhibition, which was repeated in Blomqvist's art shop in 1925.

What makes Johan Fredrik Eckersberg Interesting?

Eckersberg's clear, matter-of-fact, and sober style of painting emphasizes the line and tones down the coloristic, making his subjects appear closer to reality and the photographic. Therefore, Johan Fredrik Eckersberg can, in many ways, be considered a transitional figure between romanticism and realism in Norwegian art history.