The Cosmopolitan Defeat in the Writing of Danish Nineteenth Century Art History
When in 1877-78 the Danish art historian Philip Weilbach published his Dansk Konstnerlexikon, he created the first comprehensive encyclopaedia on artists who ’had worked in Denmark or in the Danish State’. It took him more than twenty years to collect and select the information needed for the ambitious publication. Twenty years later, in 1896-97, Weilbach published a revised and updated edition, now comprising two volumes, but now with small but very significant changes that showed a different attitude towards the cosmopolitan artists of the Danish art world. Several entries on the many artists suddenly reflected a negative or even alienating tone that marked the distinction the art historian made between the national and the cosmopolitan artists, all of whom were active in Denmark during the political changes of the 1840s and the following two Schleswig wars. While the national artists had pursued ideas of how to develop a distinct Danish style by choosing both a colour scheme and topics that reflected a certain degree of Danishness, the cosmopolitans often cultivated a border-crossing practice which displayed inspiration from especially German art centres. What Weilbach had set out to do in his revised encyclopaedia was to mark the difference between a “homegrown” Danish school and a “foreign” school of European or German influence in Denmark.
Yet, Weilbach was not alone in his attempt to nationalise art history around 1900. Art critics and writers such as Emil Hannover and Karl Madsen, both belonging to a younger generation, also relived a past narrative that had been dominant following the constitution of 1849 and the victorious First Schleswig War. The result was the harsh formulation of a narrative of outsiders who had cultivated a German style in Danish art while an opposing group was celebrated for the nation-building images of Danish culture they produce. Also, the first group of artists displaying a European outlook was considered dangerous due to the art works’ potential to pollute the development of national art. The nationalised agenda of these influential writers was indeed a reaction to the shadowing defeat of 1864 with the intention to decrease the impact of German influence. Through comparative analysis of art historical texts, images as well as letters, this paper will throw light onto the cultural mechanisms and impact of defeat in nineteenth century Danish art history.
Sine Krogh (Mag.art, PhD), is an art historian and she has participated as postdoc (2022-2023) in the research project “The Long Shadow of a Defeat”, led by Associate Professor, Rasmus Glenthøj, University of Southern Denmark (SDU).