By: Constantin Hansen (1808-1880)
Created: 1837, Collection: Statens Museum for Kunst / National Gallery of Denmark, Kopenhagen, Denmark Rights: CC-BY
The scene is timeless: 7 young people, students, hanging out together and discussing. Just recreate the image with your friends around a big window or a door in the middle.
A group of Danish artists are gathered in a room in Rome. They are discussing art. Speaking from the floor, the architect Gottlieb Bindesbøll relates the experiences of his recent travels in Greece, a country that was unfamiliar territory to most Europeans at the time due to the many years of Turkish occupation. The other artists listen with varying degrees of interest and attention.
Constantin Hansen was very ambitious when painting this picture. He let himself be inspired by Renaissance depictions of artists, transforming them to suit the ideals of his own era. Through the doors we see the greatest source of inspiration for the artists of the time: contemporary reality.
From the left the persons depicted are: the artist himself, Bindesbøll, Martinus Rørbye, Wilhelm Marstrand, Küchler, Ditlev Blunck and Jørgen Sonne . With its serious atmosphere the painting stands out among the pictures of carefree Italian living that Danish audiences saw so many of at the time.
