Christian Albrecht Jensen

1792 – 1870

Danish painter. Apart from his many copies of Old Masters, he is exceptional in Danish art of his time in devoting himself solely to portrait painting. He went to Copenhagen c. 1810 to study at the Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi, where he was taught by Christian August Lorentzen (1749-1828), with whom he also studied privately. In 1816 Jensen embarked on an extended educational journey to Rome where he met the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. In Rome he painted a series of small, intimate portraits of acquaintances, and in these paintings he developed his own style. His masterpiece is his portrait of the sculptor Hermann Ernst Freund (1819; Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen), in which he depicted his good friend and colleague as a romantic artist, with open-neck shirt, beret and long hair. Although the portrait is small in scale, it is detailed in its characterization. Jensen's work is representative of the Golden Age of Danish Painting.

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