Beschreibung:

Jørgen Roed
(b. Ringsted 1808, d. Copenhagen 1888)
View of Sommerspiret at the Cliffs of Møn. Unsigned. Inscribed 1830. Oil on canvas laid on cardboard. 21.5×26.5 cm.
Exhibited: Nivaagaards Malerisamling, “Møen i dansk kunst - Naturromantik i Guldalderen”, 1994 no. 40, reproduced. p. 2. Storstrøms Kunstmuseum and The Skovgaard Museum, “Udsigt til Guldalderen”, 2005–2006 no. 64.
Literature: Hans Edvard Nørregård-Nielsen, “Christen Købke”, vol. I, “Omkring Kastellet” (Around the Citadel), 1996, mentioned p. 276, reproduced p. 278.
Jens Peter Munk, “Jørgen Roed. Ungdomsarbejder”, 2013, mentioned pp. 121–123, reproduced p. 121. Munk describes the motif in the following way: “The painting of “Sommerspiret” is ingenious and yet also simply constructed in accordance with the prevailing principles of landscape painting at the time. From the high vantage point, all the classical, compositional rules are observed: the foreground’s railing across the image, the thicket and the two beech trunks on the left, the chalk-white formations of the middle ground with Sommerspiret, which divides the frame into the golden ratio and rises above the horizon of the sea, and finally the background's precisely balanced border between a slightly clouded sky and a calm, beautifully bluish sea surface. Truly a compact image of the month of July, life-affirming and refreshing in its colour and lighting.”
In the years 1828–1833, Jørgen Roed was a student of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, who motivated his students to go out into the nature with their painting material and field chairs to paint directly in situ under the open sky. In the summer of 1830, Roed visited the Cliffs of Møn, which with their dramatic and majestic nature became a favourite motif for the Danish Golden Age painters, and here he made a couple of oil paintings and drawings. At the National Gallery of Art, there is a drawing of Roed (Inv. No. KKS10222), dated Møn 10 July, which shows a young artist in the process of executing a study of the Cliffs of Møn. The natural chalk spire formation, “Sommerspiret”, the same motif as the present painting, can just be seen on the canvas. The artist in the drawing is probably Frederik Sødring (Munk, p. 123).
Provenance: According to an inscription on the back the painting was (in Danish): “Given as a gift by Roed to the Reverend Staffeldt Møller, Elsinore”. Winkel & Magnussen auction 4, 1922 no. 45. Here erroneously dated 1838.