Johan Vilhelm Gertner

Johan Vilhelm Gertner studied at Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Andreas Fritz is recorded as having studied under Johan Vilhelm Gertner. The recorded working language is Danish. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Places of work recorded in the authority are Denmark. Work by Johan Vilhelm Gertner is recorded in the collections of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Nationalmuseum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Portrait Gallery of Sweden and Statens Museum for Kunst. Distinctions recorded are Thorvaldsen Medal.

Gertner was born to a craftsman at the Holmen Naval Base. He attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1831 to 1837 where he was one of the pupils of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, known as the father of the Golden Age of Danish Painting. Eckersberg taught him a naturalistic approach to painting, but Gertner went much further with inspiration from French art and the emerging techniques of photography. His virtuosity in producing almost photographically precise portraits impressed many; in particular, his ability to reproduce textures and materials — crisp silk dresses, lustrous medals and jewellery, dark mahogany furniture, silky wallpapers, and soft carpets — won him much acclaim. Others, such as the influential art historian and critic Niels Lauritz Høyen, who opposed any foreign influence on Danish painting, disapproved of his style, preferring more sincere and sensitive portrayals. He was a professor at the Academy from 1858.

Gertner painted many of the leading artists of his time, including Bertel Thorvaldsen in Thorvaldsen in his studio (1839, Thorvaldsens Museum) and C.W. Eckersberg (1850, Royal Danish Academy). Occasionally he also painted genre works, history painting or architecture pieces.

• Illustration — Jacob Peter Mynster • Illustration — Bertel Thorvaldsen • Illustration — Carl Christian Hall • Illustration — King Christian VIII

• Nivaagaard Painting Collection, Johan Vilhelm Gertner, 2 September – 18 November 2001