Christen Købke
‘Night’ (after Bertel Thorvaldsen’s relief), 1834–1835
Oil on canvas
In 1815, the painter C.W. Eckersberg (1783–1853) witnessed how two of the best-known reliefs by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen's (1770–1844) came to be. He was well positioned to do so as both artists lived in the same house in Rome at the time.
According to Eckersberg, Thorvaldsen had long pondered how to treat a particular subject rooted in ancient mythology; a symbolic depiction of Night (Nyx) and her two children, the twins Sleep (Hypnos) and Death (Thanatos). However, he struggled to clarify his ideas. One night, however, the motif suddenly sprang into his head, and he immediately got out of bed and quickly modelled the relief. When Eckersberg came by his room in the morning the following day, the relief was almost finished, and a plasterer was sent for. Before he arrived, Thorvaldsen had also executed the relief's counterpart, Day.1 Some twenty years after the creation of the two reliefs, Christen Købke copied them – not in plaster, however, but as grisaille paintings.
Here is one of the two paintings, Night, showing the goddess Nyx flying across the sky with closed eyes, cradling her two sleeping children in her arms. Her hair wreath is braided with poppies, one of her attributes and a symbol of sleep and death. Another of Nyx’s attributes is the owl seen from the front under her wings. The owl is a nocturnal bird, and here it is a symbol of silence.
When Thorvaldsen created his reliefs in 1815, they soon became popular as decorative embellishments in interiors as well as exteriors, for example inside gateways. Købke executed his two paintings for a similar purpose: alongside two landscapes (20/1969) (31/2014), they would decorate his parents’ dining room in their home in Blegdammen in Copenhagen.2
Købke’s painting Day, the counterpart to Night, can also be seen in The David Collection (B 358).
According to Eckersberg, Thorvaldsen had long pondered how to treat a particular subject rooted in ancient mythology; a symbolic depiction of Night (Nyx) and her two children, the twins Sleep (Hypnos) and Death (Thanatos). However, he struggled to clarify his ideas. One night, however, the motif suddenly sprang into his head, and he immediately got out of bed and quickly modelled the relief. When Eckersberg came by his room in the morning the following day, the relief was almost finished, and a plasterer was sent for. Before he arrived, Thorvaldsen had also executed the relief's counterpart, Day.1 Some twenty years after the creation of the two reliefs, Christen Købke copied them – not in plaster, however, but as grisaille paintings.
Here is one of the two paintings, Night, showing the goddess Nyx flying across the sky with closed eyes, cradling her two sleeping children in her arms. Her hair wreath is braided with poppies, one of her attributes and a symbol of sleep and death. Another of Nyx’s attributes is the owl seen from the front under her wings. The owl is a nocturnal bird, and here it is a symbol of silence.
When Thorvaldsen created his reliefs in 1815, they soon became popular as decorative embellishments in interiors as well as exteriors, for example inside gateways. Købke executed his two paintings for a similar purpose: alongside two landscapes (20/1969) (31/2014), they would decorate his parents’ dining room in their home in Blegdammen in Copenhagen.2
Købke’s painting Day, the counterpart to Night, can also be seen in The David Collection (B 358).