View of Kullen across the Lake from a Garden Terrace with Statues (Marienlyst)

Skovgaard came across this evocative scene on one of his trips along the coast of Northern Zealand. The subject is from the region around Marienlyst, depicting a garden terrace situated on some high vantage point from whence one could see both Kattegat and the Swedish peninsula Kullaberg. In the foreground, two ladies with umbrellas are out for a stroll, while a hunting dog is looking at something in the distance. The garden terrace is framed by a balustrade of antique statues, one of which depicts the Roman goddess of love, Venus. The composition is dominated by a light colour palette as well as a simple horizontal composition, which subtly underscores the peaceful interaction between man and nature in this Danish summer paradise.

About the artist:
In Denmark, Skovgaard, along with his artist colleague, J. Th. Lundbye, became one of the most significant National Romantic landscape painters of the Golden Age. For a number of years, he was a professor at the Academy of Art in Copenhagen. Among Skovgaard’s sources of inspiration were Flemish Baroque landscape painters such as Jacob Ruysdael and the French artist Claude Lorrain’s timeless Arcadian landscapes. He mastered both the smaller formats with realistic, impasto depictions of nature and bigger, monumental and detailed compositions. The artist’s favoured subject matter was the Danish beech forest, which he painted throughout his life in countless variations from regions all across the country. Skovgaard’s artistic legacy was primarily carried on through his sons, Joakim and Niels.