Frederik Theodor Kloss

Frederik Theodor Kloss (Braunschweig, 1802 – Copenhagen, 1876) was a German-Danish painter who specialized in marine painting. His career unfolded between Germany and Denmark, and his interest in the sea took him to several regions of northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

He trained at the Berlin Academy under Carl Schumann. Between 1825 and 1827 he travelled to Prague, Breslau and Dresden, and later visited the North Sea, Iceland, the Mediterranean and the Faroe Islands. In Dresden he saw a marine painting by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, which led him to move to Copenhagen to study with him at the Danish Academy. The two became close friends, a bond that extended to their membership in the Freemasons.

Kloss became fully integrated into Danish cultural life. He joined the Academy in 1840, was made a professor in 1853 and served as treasurer from 1867. His notable works include The Great Geyser in Iceland during Eruption (1835), Danish Men-of-War in the Roads of Copenhagen (1837) and The Harbour of Nyborg (1840), in which the cutter Neptun appears in the foreground.