Painters of the Danish Golden Age

Describe the Danish Golden Age of painting and explain how the artists and their work helped shape the perception of the Danish landscape.

One of the main characteristics that distinguished landscape painting of the Danish Golden Age was their romanticism of nature. Painters depicted the Danish nature as grand and vast. During this time, there was a lot of Danish nationalistic pride and it was the intent to make a distinct recognizable style. Thus, a lot of the paintings depicted the flat Danish landscape, much of which contained Viking burial mounds to display Denmark's ancient history. The Danish Golden Age established an historical and social identity of Denmark in the painting using landscape as a context.

Ultimately, this Golden Age influenced other Danish Art. Danish Impressionists used nature to convey the inner psyche. In this way, nature was a reflection of something from within. The consistency between the Golden Age and the Impressionists was that nature was a mysterious thing. However, in the case of Impressionism, nature become eerie and resembled the unknown or the depths of the subconscious. The Golden Age depicted nature as mysterious, benevolent and grandiose.

Today a lot of land art is about sensory experience, feeling the land through senses whether it be touch, sound, or sight. It is a 21st century ideal to be focused on the individual. The self reflective nature has origins with the Impressionist, emphasizing nature as a reflection or meditation of the personal subconscious. The meaning becomes a focus on the personal experience.

Ultimately, the painters of the Danish Golden Age influenced the perception of the Danish landscape by depicting nature in a positive light. Denmark has relied heavily on agriculture for many years and this identity of an agrarian culture is shown in many paintings of the landscape, i.e., placing a farmer in the landscape. These paintings from this time showed and inspired a sense of pride and recognizable image of what comprised Danish landscape. This iconic time is probably part of the reason for the Danes love of greenspace.