The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-08

Danish history as 1.-THE Madman," may have
brought home as a memorial of his trip to
England. But nothing of the sort is met
with. Thus while England's Coronation
Chair in Westminster Abbey, one of the
oldest pieces Of woodwork extant, dates back
to the thirteenth century, ''the Coronation
Chair of the Danish Kings" preserved in the
Castle of Rosenberg was ordered
to be manufactured about the
middle of the seventeenth century,
and first came into use at the coronation of
Christian V, on the 9TH of June, 1871. "Fhe
Oldenborg Horn" one of the most elaborate
and snowy pieces of silver work in Europe,
is not of Danish but of German workman
ship, and has moreover a date as late as the
fifteenth century. In like manner, much
which passes muster for Danish must neces-
sarily be of foreign origin. That Denmark
may feel the less Inundated, we frankly admit
that the greater part of the art treasures of
England are not English. Denmark and Eng
land, in national history as in art, have much
in common; and thus the two countries
may Join hands, and acknowledge that no
lands and no peoples have by nature
been made more inartistic. 1t is amusing
to observe how Britain coquetted with her
neighbor across the seas; no fewer than seven
Danish Kings were dubbed Knights of the
Garter, whereof the insignia are of course
treasured at Rosenberg. This chateau, which
answers to the Hotel Cluny in Paris, has been
fairly well described and illustratedin "Rosen-
borg: Notes on the Chronological Collection
of the Danish Kings" by Carl Andersen, In-
spector of the Collection; translated by Charles
Shaw.
Coming down to modern times, the Danish
division of the Royal Picture Gallery de-
serves attention. Contemporary art in Oopen-
hagen has made itself known in success
sive international exhibitions; yet while in
the last Paris competition the pictures
of Sweden, Norway, and Russia severally re-
ceived reward, the contributions of Denmark
were passed over without recognition. The
reason, we fear, is but too apparent. Other
nations of Northern Europe date their but too
recent Renaissance from the time when, dis
trusting their own educational resources,
youths of promise were sent to the Academies
of Dusseldorf, of Paris, or of Rome. Copen-
hagen, on the contrary, under a mistaken
idea of nationality, jealously guarded against
inroad style of art now unfortunately ex-
clusively her own-an art distinguished by
plebeianism, opacity, and a vigor which is the
reverse of refinement. Professor Eckersberg
| (born 1888, died 1853) deemed the master of
the Danish school, appears in the museum as
the ally of David, while other painters incline
to Poussin. Such a dead-alive condition of
course could not last And now nation
almost too small to hold together, with total
population less than that of London and with
revenue below three millions sterling is
divided between two hostile camps-the
national and the non-national. So far does
the mutual animosity go that the present
| writer was the other day informed
that the bearer of letters to the
one party could scarcely expect kindly
reception from the other. The so-called ma
tional party, which would seem the stronger
of the two, maintains that Danish art should
be Danish, and nothing more; it holds in alb
horrence hybrid schools, it fosters nought but
the legitimate offspring of Northern races
and Northern lands. M. Exner, himself
Danish peasant educated in Copenhagen, re-
presents the creed in unmitigated guise, ga
Sunday Visit to Grandpapa in the Island of
Amack" is painted with vigorous yet some-
what vulgar hand. On the opposite side, the
non-national party-headed by Professor
Jerichau, the illustrious pupil of Thor
waldsen, and by Madame Jerichau, his wife,
Pole by birth-urge, and not without reason,
that art is cosmopolitan, universal as truth
and beauty, wide-embracing as nature. Hence
they allow such foreign Intervention as may
tend to perfect art as art. On the one hand,
the national party may be likened to CONNER
cial protectionists, who foster native indus
tries by the exclusion of all importations from
abroad; on the other, the non-national party
answers to the free-treaers, who would admit
into the country whatever the country needs.
u
truth; the mischief is in the extreme of each
party. Danish art has greatly suffered by this
silly contest.
The Danish school of painting has passed
through divers phases, most of which indicate
people singularly obtuse in art. Works of
the David period are below similar products
in Belgium and Italy. The present strength
of the school is in genre. Denmark, in COM
mon with Sweden and Norway, has given
| birth to an art of truth-seeking .naturalism,
an art of simple peasant life, honest, homely,
| and hearty. The school is SO far Danish or
| Scandinavian in that it differs from the Dutch
and the Scotch; the pictures of M. Exner, M.
Dalsgaard, NJ Marstrand, and others, have a
nationality distinct from the figures found in
! the canvases of Teniers and Ostade, or of
! Sir David Wilkie and Mr.. Thomas Faed. Some
of these faithful transcripts attain ethno-
graphic accuracy, not to say tailoring truth,
though in these lands the art of tailoring is
not advanced beyond certain rudimsntary
forms. Passing to landscape, it may be as
serted with no breach of charity that the
Danes as a nation do not see nature with an
artists eye. Nj. Skovgaard and M. Lundbye,
it will be admitted, produce landscapes of
merit Yet, for the most part, what the
Danes call landscape painting other nations
would deem but land-surveying or map
making. These people find their sphere of
art not on the land, but upon the ocean.
Since the death of Stan6eld, no nation can
boast of municipalities on par with NM.
Sorensen, Melby, and Neumann. 1t is fit
that the descendants of the Sea Kings, dwell
ers on islands lashed by fierce storms, should
feel themselves at home upon the ocean. No
artists show more knowledge of wave curves,
or Of the equilibrium of waters driven by
fierce winds