Church-Goers Arriving by Boat at the Parish Church of Leksand on Siljan Lake
Church-Goers Arriving by Boat at the Parish Church of Leksand on Siljan Lake, Sweden (Danish: Kirkefærd i Dalarne i Sverige. Til Leksands sognekirke i Dalarne kommer folket i deres store kirkebåde over Siljansøen om søndagen til gudstjeneste), is an oil on canvas painting by Wilhelm Marstrand. It is in the collection of the National Gallery of Denmark.
Church-Goers Arriving by Boat at the Parish Church of Leksand on Siljan Lake | |
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Artist | Wilhelm Marstrand |
Year | 1853 |
Medium | oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 130.5 cm × 215 cm (51.4 in × 85 in) |
Location | Danish National Gallery, Copenhagen |
History
On 8 June 1850, Marstrand was married to Margrethe Christine Weidemann (1824-1867) in Frederiksberg Church. The ongoing First Schleswig War made it impossible to travel south on their honeymoon. On the recommendation of Hans Christian Andersen, a friend of Marstrand, they chose instead to go to Dalarna in Sweden.
Back from his honeymoon, Marstrand received a commission from C.- A. Thomsen for a large painting of this scene for the Danish National Gallery. In his book I Sverige (1851), Andersen had described the colourful tableau with the church-goers:[1]
In Danish |
In English |
In July 1851, Marstrand therefore returned to Lake Siljan. In Leksand, he created numerous preparatory sketches for the large painting. It was completed in early 1853.[2] The painting was ready for the opening of the annual Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition on 31 March 1853.[3]
Description
In Wilhelm Marstrand – A cosmopolitan artist caught in a vortex of images (2020), Jesper Svenningsen has described the painting as a highlight in Marstrand's production. He observes: "In contrast to virtually all of Marstrand’s earlier depictions of life, he chose here to eschew anecdote and suppress any urge to caricature or beautify. Instead, he has chosen a panoramic scene and gone on to orchestrate the crowd with a tautness of composition more reminiscent of a battle scene than of a rural population assembling on a perfectly ordinary Sunday morning."[4]
References
- Madsen, Karl (1905). Wilhelm Marstrand 1807-1873. Kunstforeningen. pp. 168–. ISBN 1172123985.
- "Wilhelm Marstrand" (in Danish). Dansk Biografisk Leksikon. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
- "Church-Goers Arriving by Boat at the Parish Church of Leksand on Siljan Lake, Sweden". Statens Museum for Kunst. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
- "Wilhelm Marstrand – A cosmopolitan artist caught in a vortex of images". perspectivejournal.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 9 June 2022.