Bertel Thorvaldsen
1841
Bertel Thorvaldsen was the 'Michelangelo of the North,' a sculptor so famous that his return to Copenhagen from Rome was celebrated with a massive public parade. In this 1841 portrait by his friend Johan Christian Dahl, the aging artist looks intense and rugged, with wild silver hair and piercing blue eyes staring out from a dark, moody background. He wears a heavy blue coat with a bold red velvet collar, looking less like a polished aristocrat and more like a man ready to get his hands dirty in the studio. Dahl’s loose, energetic brushstrokes—a hallmark of Romanticism—capture the raw character of this Neoclassical giant just a few years before his death.
- Technique
- Oil painting
Views: 1