NOT SOLD. Johan Thomas Lundbye: Italian women dancing. Signed and dated. Watercolour on paper. Visible size 28 x 44 cm. – Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers of Fine Art

Johan Thomas Lundbye (b. Kalundborg 1818, d. Bedsted 1848)

Italian women and children dancing in a house on via Margutta in Rome. On the right, seated on a stone sill, presumably the artist himself. Signed and dated I. T. Lundbye Roma Sept. 1845 and inscribed “Si vede sempre cossi domenica sera sul porta a via Margutta N. 33” (It always looks like this on Sundays at the entrance to via Margutta no. 33). Watercolour on paper laid on cardboard. Visible size 28×44 cm.

In March 1845, Lundbye received the Art Academy’s travel scholarship, and travelled to Rome via Germany and Switzerland. Here, he moved in with his artist friends, Jens Adolf Jerichau and Thorald Læssøe, who had taken up residence and workshop in a house on Via Margutta. Lundbye’s time in Italy was marked by an intense longing for his homeland, and his depressed frame of mind wasn’t helped by the fact that he was low on funds and had to borrow money from friends and acquaintances. Jerichau had spent several years abroad and had engaged himself with foreign art and artists. Thus, he found it hard to accept Lundbye’s nationalistic outlook on art, which was strongly influenced by the art historian and critic Niels Laurits Høyen. On 4 September 1845, Lundbye notes in his diary: “I live in the most wretched conditions here, as it is impossible for me to stay calm and forbearing when listening to Jerichau’s mockery and abuse of everything that is Danish”. Lundbye makes a comment in his diary about Jerichau’s change of character from when they had their last encounter: “Before I came, I had sensed that Adolf had changed, but I had never imagined that he would have given up all of his old interests”. (Johan Thomas Lundbye's diaries, Sources of Danish Art History (ktdk.dk) by MA and PhD Jesper Svenningsen).

His relationship with Jerichau and Læssøe worsened during his stay, and after a major fight between them he decided to leave their shared house in Via Margutta.

Lundbye made the present drawing in the middle of this turbulent time, in the days before he moved away from Via Margutta. The otherwise merry scene with the dancing women and children, seems rather melancholic when seen through the eyes of the slightly resigned and tired man watching the festivities from the sideline. Could this be the artist portraying himself? Maybe he wanted to present the viewer with the contrast between the different moods prevalent in the scene: The merry and youthful, as represented by the dancers, compared to the melancholic and despondent, as symbolised by the bearded man.

Lundbye had grown a large bushy beard during his travels in 1845–46, which, in spite of his young age, made him look much older. In a letter to his friend Lorenz Frølich, written in July 1846, he notes: “My long beard is already causing such a stir, that I have decided to get rid of it. Bawdy men shout at me, young and well-dressed girls erupt in laughter, children point their fingers at me […]” (”Tegninger og Huletanker”, p. 127). His changing moods probably didn’t help his posture, which can be described as rather stooping and languid at this time.

The similarities between the bearded man and contemporary self-portraits of Lundbye can be seen in many of his drawings in the exhibition catalogue “Tegninger og Huletanker. Johan Thomas Lundbye 1818–1848” from the Hirschsprung collection 1998–1999. Among others, one from 1846, made in Naples, where he is seen with a large beard and wearing similar clothing, such as the Roman hat (cat. 289). A self-portrait from 1846, shows the artist in three quarter profile, hunched over and sporting the same big beard ( cat. no. 6) and several of Lundbye’s depictions of himself as the dwarf, Sindre, has a striking resemblance to the gentleman in the present drawing. Whether or not the bearded man depicted in the drawing is Lundbye himself, he can definitely be considered a good representation of how the artist looked and felt at this particular time in his life.

Provenance: Bruun Rasmussen auction 474, 1985 no. 663, reproduced p. 173.