Constantin Hansen

Sale: Sotheby's London, 19 November 1997, lot 75 
Purchased by the present owner at the above sale 

Original canvas. There are spots of retouching visible under ultraviolet light, notably along the periphery of the canvas. There is some paint loss mainly to the lower right corner of the canvas, and the canvas is slightly slack with some cracking within a horizontal band along the lower edge of the work. Held in a simple, gold-painted moulded plaster and wood frame with beaded motifs.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Trained first as an architect, in 1825 Hansen enrolled at the Copenhagen Academy of Fine Art, where he was greatly influenced by the teaching of C.W. Eckersberg. Leaving Denmark for Italy in 1835, he visited the Temple of Poseidon at Pæstum in 1838. The sketches of the temple that he did on site he then worked up into four oils of which the present work is the largest, and the only version to include two figures.

The first version, dating from 1838, shows a standing shepherd in place of the flute-playing child (private collection; see: E. Hannover, Maleren Constantin Hansen, Copenhagen, 1898, fig. 39). The second, in which the seated flautist with a dog at his feet was substituted for a shepherd, was commissioned by Bertel Thorvaldsen and painted the following year (Thorvaldsen Museum; see: exhibition catalogue, L'Age d'Or de la Peinture Danoise, Paris, 1984, no. 78, p. 177). The third version without figures was sold in Copenhagen in 1996 (see: sale, Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, 4 June 1996, lot 85).  

Among the praise heaped upon Hansen's pictures at a Copenhagen exhibition of 1844 the critic K.F. Wiborg assigned a special position to The Temple of Poseidon, '...distinguished with all the simplicity and power with which nature imposes herself through her colours. Of the columns of Paestum, we mention only the central one, a little behind those of the foreground! What clarity! What power! What heat in that shade!'