Martinus Rørbye

Martinus Rørbye (Drammen, Norway, 1803 - Copenhagen, 1848) was a Danish genre painter and one of the central figures of the Danish Golden Age. His family returned to Denmark when he was twelve, shortly after the two countries separated in 1814. He entered the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1820, studying under Christian August Lorentzen and Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, with whom he worked closely. From them he took a sense of detail and an emphasis on colour.

From 1824 he exhibited at Charlottenborg Palace, and his submissions, many of them prizewinning, continued until 1848. In the 1820s he painted views of Copenhagen and Zealand as well as portraits. His View from the Artist's Window (c. 1825) anticipates his later travels: a caged bird beside an open window sits between the safety of the family home and the wide world suggested by a moored ship.

In the 1830s he travelled to Norway, where he painted landscapes under the influence of Johan Christian Dahl and Caspar David Friedrich, and toured Jutland. He visited Skagen three times between 1833 and 1848, painting fishermen and the North Sea coast. He went to Paris, Rome, Sorrento, Sicily, Athens and Constantinople, producing countless drawings of what he saw. His orientalist scenes brought him attention. In 1837 the Academy asked him for an orientalist work as part of his membership application, and Caravan near Smyrna, finished in 1838, was received unanimously. That same year he married Rose Frederikke Schiøtt.

His health declined in 1839 and he spent time in Italy, where he painted the Square in Amalfi. In 1844 he became a professor at the Academy, and that year he travelled to Sweden. He died in Copenhagen in 1848, leaving his young widow with several small children. Several of his works were shown posthumously. His legacy lies mainly in his scenes of everyday life and travel views, and in having taught Christen Dalsgaard.