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Guardi, Belotto, and other painters in Venice - the city of vedutes above all. Some
of their views were published in engraved volumes and their fame spread through
out Europe; some of the painters went to Poland, Saxony, Russia, and England,
founding schools in these countries. Naturally, such prominent artists did not reach
Denmark, but we did get people like Jacopo Fabris, the scene painter, who came
in 1747, and the painter Gian Antonio Cesari, both of whom did sopraportals,
examples of which can be seen at the Copenhagen City Museum. Conversely, many
Danish painters - especially after the foundation of the Academy of Fine Arts in
1754 - went to Rome and Paris where they stayed several years and were inspired
by "great art".
As mentioned above, the oldest views of Copenhagen show the city from with
out; not until J. A. Greyss' engraving of Rundetårn (the round tower) from 1646
do we encounter a representation of a single building. In Denmark, too, there were
hopes of huge topographical works; Peder Hansen Resen, the President of Copen
hagen, collected an enormous heap of material which swelled so much that a
complete edition was no longer to be realized. About 1677, however, he published
a sample of his plates for Atlas Danicus (cat. no. 150). Since then many other
people took up the idea: Marselis, Thurah, Roque, Bruun, but not until the 1760s
did Erik Pontoppidan succeed in realizing the dream of a topographical atlas
covering the whole country. A lot of views of the capital as well as of the pro
vinces were done in the form of book illustrations, loose leafs, oil paintings, etc.,
and in the last third of the century we see the seeds of the Danish landscape paint
ing, which, however, did not flourish until the 19th century. The pioneer within
this field was J. P. Lund, who during his stay in Rome painted views, capriccios,
and landscapes.
As mentioned the exhibition starts off with the oldest authentic view of Copen
hagen from 1587 and ends in 1807 when the city was bombarded. This historic
event seems to be a suitable termination, but it is of greater importance that the
situation of source material
in the 19th century is completely different from what
it used to be. After 1800 the material is so abundant that that alone could be the
starting point for a whole exhibition in itself. He who in the course of his visit to
the exhibition might want to advance further in time, will already now via the
Museum's permanent exhibition get a good impression of the development through
out the 19th century. With this limitation it was possible for the Museum to include
all important views. O f course there are many things that have been left out -
endless copies, repetitions, etc. It has been our guiding principle to exhibit as many
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