Danish master Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg is getting his first monographic show in France – some 163 years after his death.After the Statens Museum for Kunst of Copenhagen and the Kunsthalle of Hamburg, The Fondation Custodia in Paris is hosting the exhibition with 125 works, including many unseen drawings. The foundation already owns a large number of Danish pieces of art itself.To find out more, Blouin ARTINFO met Custodia director Ger Luitjen and asked him a few questions.This the first monographic exhibition on the artist in France. Was it also the case in Denmark?There were some exhibitions on Eckersberg and his pupils about 20 years ago in Denmark, but they were not monographic like the current one. The only other solo exhibition on the artist took place in Washington in 2003, gathering 53 very well chosen paintings.The Fondation Custodia seemed to be the natural location to feature such an exhibition. What is the connection between Custodia and Danish art?This house is indeed very much into Danish art. We have a collection of 400 Danish drawings which was started by my pre-predecessor, Carlos van Hasselt, who ran the Fondation from 1970 to 1994 and was a friend of the curator of the Print Room in Copenhagen who guided him through his acquisitions. In the last years, we bought 60 oil sketches by Danish artists – three of them are exhibited in the room of the new acquisitions next to Eckersberg drawings in our basement – and we also acquired two reliefs of the great Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. Our library is the most exhaustive in Paris about Danish artists. We are genuinely determined to promote this culture, which makes Custodia a little enclave of Danish art.The exhibition is slightly different from what it was in Copenhagen. What are the changes?We cut out a few of the big history pieces which Eckersberg painted for the Court. These are actually big formats, difficult to transport, which make more sense for the Danish public and which are not the quintessence of his art in my opinion. So we concentrated on all the other genres, landscapes of course, in Paris and Rome, portraits, nudes and scenes of everyday life in Denmark. In the basement are displayed about 50 drawings, which were mostly not on show in Copenhagen. Fifteen of them belong to Custodia; others come from foreign museums or private collections.The exhibition was called “A Beautiful Lie” in Copenhagen. Why didn’t you keep that title here?In Paris, we chose a more straightforward and obvious title for a public which is probably less familiar with Eckersberg’s name, although he is the father of the 19th-century Danish school of painting. Most of the painters of the Danish Golden Age passed through his teaching. Some of them, such as Lundbye or Kobke, became very famous. Eckersberg was not in a pure sense a plein-air painter, but he made a great contribution to this genre. The part of the exhibition devoted to his landscapes in Rome is certainly the more spectacular. In a work such as the painting of the Ribe Museum, he proves a remarkable and very original sense of centering, choosing the point of view as if he was looking through a camera.A whole section of the exhibition is devoted to his nudes. What part do they take in his art?In Paris, Eckersberg spent one year in David’s workshop, and he very much admired the way the French painter instructed his pupils, giving oral explanation without intervening on their drawings. When he came back in his country and became a teacher at the Academie in Copenhagen, he imitated David’s very respectful method. We exhibit here five life-size paintings coming directly from this Academie.Custodia owns an exceptional collection of ‘plein air ’oil sketches. Are they visible to the public?We now own about 200 “plein-air landscapes” by many European artists, and still intend to develop this collection despite the recent jump in prices. Visitors can see them by making appointments, as it is the case for drawings or other documents. As a matter of fact, we are planning a big exhibition in 2019 called “Painting From Nature,” which will, I hope, extend general knowledge on that particular subject.“C.W. Eckersberg, 1783-1853, artiste danois à Paris, Rome et Copenhague,” (“C.W. Eckersberg, 1783-1853, Danish Artist in Paris, Rome and Copenhagen”) runs from June 1 through August 14 2016 at la Fondation Custodia, 121 rue de Lille 75007 Paris. Information: http://fondationcustodia.fr/english/
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