Forperm 1842 - 1845

This is a page from Johan Thomas Lundbye’s sketchbook with a dedication written in Danish. Lundbye was a Danish painter and graphic artist associated with the Golden Age of Danish Painting in the first half of the 19th century. Denmark in the first half of the 1800s saw a surge in national romanticism with artists turning to the local landscape for subject matter. This nationalistic movement flourished through the institutional support of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Lundbye himself studied at the Academy in Copenhagen. His surviving sketchbooks, now held in museum collections, provide invaluable insights into his artistic process. They also shed light on the cultural and intellectual milieu of his time. Through careful archival research of this kind, we gain a deeper appreciation of the complex interplay between individual talent, artistic training, and broader social and political forces that shaped the art of the Danish Golden Age.