Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard
Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard (
September 11,
1743-
June 4,
1809), called
the father of Danish painting, was born at
Copenhagen, the son of Søren Abildgaard, an antiquarian draughtsman of repute. He formed his style on that of
Claude Lorrain and of
Nicolas Poussin, and was a cold theorist, inspired not by nature but by art. As a technical painter he attained remarkable success, his tone being very harmonious and even, but the effect, to a foreigner's eye, is rarely interesting. His works are scarcely known out of
Denmark, where he won an immense fame in his own generation. He was the founder of the Danish school of painting, and the master of
Thorvaldsen and Eckersberg.
From an old 1911 Encyclopedia