Pair of Chairs in the Etruscan Style

Constantin Hansen was a Danish history painter and son of the painter Hans Hansen (1769-1828). He was born in Rome in 1804 and was baptized in Vienna the following year; his family stopped off there on their return journey to Denmark. He was a nephew of Constanze Mozart, the widow of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who had married a Danish consul in her second marriage. He was given the name Constantin in her honor. From 1817, Hansen began to study architecture at the Copenhagen Academy of Fine Arts. He broke off his studies in 1821 and from then on devoted himself entirely to painting. Hansen became a pupil in the studio of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg and was able to make his successful debut at an Academy exhibition just four years later with several portraits. In 1835, Hansen received a two-year scholarship for his achievements, which enabled him to travel to Italy. In late summer of the same year, he traveled to Munich via Berlin, Dresden, Prague and Nuremberg. From there he traveled via Salzburg and Florence to Rome. There he soon joined his fellow countryman, the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen and his circle.

From Rome in 1838, Hansen undertook a study trip to Naples and Pompeii lasting several weeks together with the painter Jørgen Roed. He repeated this the following year with Christen Købke and Georg Christian Hilker and then also visited Paestum. On both trips, Hansen and his friends studied and copied mostly antique frescoes, but also antique furniture. Several sketches of these have survived, which served either as models for his paintings or as direct furniture models.

The furniture in Constantin Hansen’s own apartment in Amalievej in Copenhagen was predominantly made according to his designs. These included the chairs presented here, of which there are only very few versions. ”The walls in the family’s living room were a warm Pompeian red, but most of it was of course covered with paintings. The table and chairs were simple and dignified in style, but of course not as comfortable or upholstered in plush as one would expect today,” wrote Constantin Hansen’s daughter Elise[1]. To date, research has been able to attribute a total of eleven different furniture designs to Hansen. Unfortunately, however, it is not known which cabinetmaker realized Hansen’s designs.

One of his most important paintings from his time in Italy was ”A Society of Danish Artists in Rome”, painted in 1837 and commissioned by the Copenhagen Art Association. As a depiction of an unconventional gathering of like-minded people, this painting reflects the new self-confidence of a bourgeois society active in the arts and thus became an often-cited example.

On his return journey, Hansen spent some time in Munich to learn fresco techniques at the art academy there. This was necessary because of the state commission he had received. Together with Georg Christian Hilker, he was to decorate the entrance hall of the University of Copenhagen, which he accomplished between 1844 and 1853 with themes from Greek mythology. The painter August Andreas Jensdorff was later able to restore the work using Hansen’s original cartoons. The art critic Emil Hannover described the work as follows:

”[He created] ... with clear and profound insight into the essence of ancient painting and Greek mythology, a circle of pictures which, in terms of purity and rigor of style, have few equals among the corresponding works from the most recent period.”

Between 1861 and 1865, Hansen was entrusted with the decoration of the court theater in Copenhagen; he was assisted by Christian Albrecht Jensen. Hansen was also involved in the decoration of Roskilde Cathedral. In his late work, he also created several etchings, most of which depicted landscapes and architecture.

On the occasion of his 50th birthday in 1854, Hansen was honored with the appointment of titular professor and on his sixtieth the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts accepted him as a member. After the death of Vilhelm Marstrand in 1873, Hansen was appointed deputy director of the Academy. Around 1878, Hansen resigned from all offices and retired into private life. After a short illness, he died in Copenhagen on March 29, 1880 at the age of 75.

Literature:

1. Gelfer-Jorgensen, Mirjam, The Dream of a Golden Age, Danish Neo-Classical Furniture 1790-1850, Rhodos Verlag 2004
2. Gelfer-Jorgensen, Mirjam, Herculanum paa Sjaelland, Klassicisme og nyantik i dansk möbeltradition, Rhodos Verlag 1988

[1] Gelfer-Jorgensen, 2004, page 266