Dreyer, dunkwart

Born on the island of Funen , son of a merchant who died in 1823. From childhood, he diligently engaged in drawing, which was further recalled by his peer and fellow countryman Jens Jerichau . At the age of 15, Dunkwart came to Copenhagen to study at the Danish Royal Academy of Fine Arts . Initially, he studied mainly historical and portrait painting under the guidance of Johann Ludwig Lund and Christopher Wilhelm Eckersberg , then he turned to landscapes, in the field of which Kristen Köbke became his mentor.

Dreyer never traveled outside the country and drew inspiration from the landscapes of various regions of Denmark, which he traveled a lot. At the turn of the 1830-1840s. Together with his friends and peers Johan Thomas Lundby and Peter Christian Skogor, he became one of the prominent figures of the nationally romantic trend in Danish painting, following the ideas of N. L. Hoyen about the need for a new Danish culture that feeds on national roots. However, Dreyer gradually became disillusioned with this artistic ideology, which demanded from the landscape, first of all, the ability to express the national spirit. In 1848, he stopped participating in exhibitions and left the capital, buying a farm in Barles, near his hometown of Assens. Here he lived with his mother and sister, continuing to work on paintings, but without making any attempts to return to the national art scene. He died during the typhoid epidemic.

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  Forest lake surrounded by birches (1837, study)

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  Road through the hills (circa 1841)

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  Bridge over the cemetery creek in Assense (1842)

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  Aarhus Coast

• Suzanne Ludvigsen . Maleren Dankvart Dreyer, Volumes 1 and 2, 2008.

• Tombstone of Dreyer on [1]