Juniaften. Landskab ved Rørvig 1834 - 1887

Vilhelm Kyhn painted this landscape near Rørvig, Denmark, with oil on canvas. Kyhn was a central figure in the development of Danish national romanticism. The ‘national’ aspect of this movement needs some unpacking, as the push to establish a distinct Danish visual culture coincided with a fraught period of national identity formation. A few decades before Kyhn made this painting, Denmark lost Norway in the Napoleonic wars, and then, in 1864, a large part of Southern Jutland was annexed by Prussia. Kyhn co-founded the Free Exhibition in 1891 as an alternative to the established Academy exhibitions at Charlottenborg, where the work was judged by the professors alone. His paintings weren’t overtly political but aimed to define what was specific and unique about the Danish landscape. By studying exhibition histories and the biographies of artists like Kyhn, we can better understand the role of art in shaping national identity.