Carl Frederik Sørensen (1818-1879) Danish, Oil on Canvas. A ship sailing in coastal waters. Signed bottom left. 

Overall: 20 X 18 in. 

Sight: 12 3/4 X 10 3/4 in. 

Depth: 2 1/2 in. 

#2783 . 

Carl Frederik Sørensen was born February 8th, 1818 in Besser, Samsø, a Danish island in the Kattegat 9 miles off the Jutland Peninsula. The isolated community (less than 500 people at the beginning of the 19th Century) are referred to as Samsings, and are believed to be directly descended from Vikings who used its strategic central location as a common meeting place. Intrigued from a young age by what lay beyond the island, Sørensen finally traveled to the mainland in his mid-twenties, and attended the Danish Academy from 1843 to 1846. He took part in the decoration of the Thorvaldsen Museum in 1844, and studied perspective under Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg in 1845. Eckersberg strongly encouraged him to travel, and in 1847 he embarked on a seven year journey that took him around the Mediterranean, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and England, mainly exploring the coastlines. He took a special interest in the weather and its effects on the sea, developing his own recognizable style, mixing idyllic scenes with vividly rendered atmospheres. During the First Schleswig War he sailed with the Navy around Helgoland and in the Baltic where he depicted the Danish fleet in combat. These seascapes gained such widespread popularity that he spent much of his later years as a traveling court painter, dividing his time between St. Petersburg, London, and Athens. While presenting an exhibition of his lifetime achievements in Copenhagen he passed away on January 24th, 1879.