Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg

Referred to as the ‘Father of Danish Painting’, Eckersberg was born in Blåkrog in the Southern Jutland region of Denmark. He enrolled in the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1803 with aspirations of becoming a history painter and studied under Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard, who taught him the fundamental principles of neoclassical art. Eckersberg spent invaluable time in France and Italy where he painted ‘en plein air’ and it was his passion for painting from nature that inspired the next generation of Danish artists.

Benjamin Wolff (1790-1866) was a highly erudite, Danish lawyer, who lived in Calcutta between 1817 and 1829. During his time in India, Wolff amassed a great fortune and also began to build what would become one of Denmark’s most revered art collections. In 1829, he moved back to Denmark and bought a substantial house called Engelholm Manor on southern Zealand. Here, he housed his collections which, by the end of his life, comprised more than 2,000 drawings from both the European and Indian schools. 

After his death in 1866, Wolff’s drawings remained with his descendants for a further five generations. In May 2018, Brunn Rasmussen Auctioneers in Copenhagen held a major sale of his works (see Provenance).