Christen Købke

Christen Købke was a 19th-century Danish painter known for his landscape paintings and portraits of close friends. Although Købke studied in Italy, he was heavily influenced by Danish art historian and critic Niels Lauritz Høyen, who advocated for a sort-of nationalism in Danish painting. Købke adopted Høyen’s idea that successful Danish painters need not study in Italy, which was considered an unspoken requirement throughout Europe for serious artists. Accordingly, Købke’s paintings made a subject out of everyday life in Copenhagen, and are considered some of the strongest paintings to come out of the Danish Golden Age.