Agnes Lunn (1850–1941)
View from Marienborg’s Garden Gate, 1936
Watercolour and pencil on paper
20.5 x 26 cm
Inventory number B 206a
This watercolour was created relatively late in Agnes Lunn’s life, just five years before her death. She found the subject in the large garden at the country estate Marienborg near Frederiksdal, which C.L. David acquired in 1934, just a few years before this work was made.
It is not inconceivable that Agnes Lunn painted her subject from inside the garden room in the main house at Marienborg, which offers an excellent view of the light-filled and lush garden with expansive lawns and trees, all set off by the Lyngby Lake and the river Mølleå. In the centre of the shaded foreground is a sculpture, viewed from the side, representing John the Baptist with a lamb at his feet.1 The sculpture – and the subtle, whimsical detail of a bird perched on its head – testifies to Agnes Lunn’s excellent skills of observation and her interest in reproducing a specific fleeting moment, in this case a warm June day in 1936.
C. L. David had a great love for Marienborg, and he had a particular interest in the garden. Some of his favourite occupations were digging, weeding and felling trees.2 He made major improvements in the form of new plantings and also acquired a number of modern sculptures by artists such as Knud Kyhn (1880–1969), Karl Larsen (1897–1977), Hugo Liisberg (1896–1958) and Jais Nielsen (1885–1961), which were placed in different positions around the garden. All of the garden sculptures were included when Marienborg was bequeathed to the nation upon C.L. David’s death in 1960.
The David Collection owns several watercolours created by Agnes Lunn at Marienborg in 1936.
It is not inconceivable that Agnes Lunn painted her subject from inside the garden room in the main house at Marienborg, which offers an excellent view of the light-filled and lush garden with expansive lawns and trees, all set off by the Lyngby Lake and the river Mølleå. In the centre of the shaded foreground is a sculpture, viewed from the side, representing John the Baptist with a lamb at his feet.1 The sculpture – and the subtle, whimsical detail of a bird perched on its head – testifies to Agnes Lunn’s excellent skills of observation and her interest in reproducing a specific fleeting moment, in this case a warm June day in 1936.
C. L. David had a great love for Marienborg, and he had a particular interest in the garden. Some of his favourite occupations were digging, weeding and felling trees.2 He made major improvements in the form of new plantings and also acquired a number of modern sculptures by artists such as Knud Kyhn (1880–1969), Karl Larsen (1897–1977), Hugo Liisberg (1896–1958) and Jais Nielsen (1885–1961), which were placed in different positions around the garden. All of the garden sculptures were included when Marienborg was bequeathed to the nation upon C.L. David’s death in 1960.
The David Collection owns several watercolours created by Agnes Lunn at Marienborg in 1936.
Published in
Published in
Niels Oxenvad: Agnes Lunn. Maleri og Skulptur, Carl Nielsen Museet, Odense 1992, cat.no. 83, p. 14;
Footnotes
Footnotes
1.
Christian Hvidt in Kjeld von Folsach and Nana Lund (eds.): Dansk kunst i Davids Samling – fra Philipsen til Saxbo, København 1995, p. 18.
2.
The sculpture is made of sandstone, but its provenance cannot be identified. It may have stood in the park since the nineteenth century, at which point the then owner, Gysbert Behagen (1764–1793), acquired a number of sculptures. See Kenneth Bo Jørgensen: Marienborg, Copenhagen 2014, pp. 105, 156.
Paintings and drawings
