Lot 310: Johan Thomas Lundbye (Kalundborg 1818-1848 Bedsted)

Johan Thomas Lundbye (Kalundborg 1818-1848 Bedsted)
Portrait of Thorald Laessoe (1816-1878) (recto); Figure studies and the head of a man (verso)
signed with monogram and dated '6. Dec. [18]39.' (recto) and inscribed 'List[?] 182 Canton[?] 14' (verso)
black chalk, pen and black ink, grey wash
7 5/8 x 6 3/8 in. (19.5 x 16 cm.)

Copenhagen, Kunstforeningen, 1953-4, no. 11.

The Danish landscape painter Thorald Laessoe was 23 when this portrait was drawn by his slightly younger contemporary Lundbye. At that time, both young men were students at the Royal Danish Academy of Art, where their circle of friends included other artists who came to play a key role in the Danish Romantic movement, such as P.C. Skovgaard and Lorenz Frolich.
After his graduation from the Academy in 1842, Lundbye focused on landscape painting and spent the years of 1845-6 travelling in Germany and Italy, before returning to settle in Denmark. He died tragically young in the First War of Schleswig, on his eighth day of service in the army.