Carl Christian Constantin Hansen
(1804 Rome - Copenhagen 1880)
Fishing Boats on the Beach at Castellammare
Oil on paper on canvas
24 x 33.7 cm
Inscribed on the stretcher Golfen fra Castellamare, Const. Hansen
Bearing the art dealer's label Martin Grosell, Hauser Plads 14
Provenance:
Janus Lacour (1837-1900), Danish painter
Martin Severin Grosell, art dealer in Copenhagen
Martin Grosell Estate Sale, V. Winkel & Magnussens Kunstauktioner 109, Copenhagen, 1932
Literature:
Emil Hannover, Maleren Constantin Hansen, Catalogue Raisonné, Copenhagen, 1901, no. 193, p.309
Martin Grosell Estate Sale, Auction Catalogue, Copenhagen, V. Winkel & Magnussens Kunstauktioner 109, 1932, no. 39, illus. p.27
Carl Christian Constantin Hansen, known as Constantin Hansen, was one of C.W. Eckersberg's most talented students. He specialized in architecture, genre and portrait painting. He was also one of the few artists of the Danish Golden Age to attempt to revive history painting based on themes from antiquity. Like Eckersberg, he stressed the importance of tight, clear composition but he was a finer colourist than his teacher. In his best studies he captures atmospheric effects that anticipate Impressionism,[1] as the present sketch clearly demonstrates. Executed before the motif, en plein air, it reflects Hansen's skill in the observation and transcription of natural phenomena and in capturing the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. The sketch was executed in 1838-40 during Hansen's stay in Naples.[2] It bears interesting comparison with a sketch of a similar motif - although more detailed and less spontaneous in style - executed by Thomas Fearnley in Castellammare in 1833.[3]
Hansen was initially trained by his father, the portraitist Hans Hansen, before embarking on a career as an architect. He spent nine years training at the Academy of Architecture before transferring to the Academy of Fine Art in 1825. He left the Academy in 1833. His later work demonstrates his lasting interest in architecture.
In 1828, a year after his father's death, he trained in the studio of the painter Christen Købke. In 1829 he became a pupil - and later a close friend - of Eckersberg.
In 1835 Hansen left Denmark for Italy, travelling by way of Berlin, Dresden and Munich, where he stayed with the painter Christian Morgenstern for three weeks. From 1835 to 1837 he lived in small villages outside Rome and from 1838 to 1840 in Naples. In 1839 he spent several months in Capri with his friend Christen Købke. After a brief visit to Florence in 1840 he returned to Rome where he stayed for a further four years.
After his return to Denmark he worked on a large fresco for the vestibule of Copenhagen University, drawing inspiration from antique frescoes he had studied in Rome and Naples.
After 1850 he was chiefly occupied with commissions for portraits. His last important commission was the large group portrait of the Constitutional Assembly of 1848 painted in 1860-4.[4]
[1] Caspar Monrad in Danish Painting of the Golden Age, exhib. cat., London 1984, p.133.
[2] H.P. Rohde, En guldaldermaler i Italien, Constantin Hansen og hans krets, Copenhagen 1977.
[3] J. Faber and H.J. Moesch, Wanderlust. Oil Sketches by Thomas Fearnley, exhib. cat., London, Day & Faber 2006, no. 3.
[4] For Hansen's oeuvre and biography, see Emil Hannover, Maleren Constantin Hansen, Copenhagen 1901; Constantin Hansen 1804-1880, exhib. cat., Copenhagen/Aarhus 1991.