schilders 9

Carl Heinrich Bloch [1834–90]

A native of Copenhagen, Carl Bloch was born one of 10 children to a middle-class family. 

Bloch had no early aspirations to be an artist. At 11, he enrolled in a preparatory school for naval officers “because it sounded like fun,” says Pheysey. While at the naval academy, Bloch discovered that he had a love for art. “He would pretend to read his schoolbooks, but he would have paper and be drawing images inside the book instead,” said Pheysey in a BYU Education Week presentation.

At 15 he enrolled in the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and spent the next decade feverishly drawing and painting, to the acclaim [toejuiching] of his teachers and peers. “The academies were very rigorous,” says Pheysey. “They would draw from early in the morning until late in the evening, day after day, just drawing.” Bloch received many awards for his paintings, including a scholarship that allowed him to travel and study in Italy. 

Bloch was particularly fond of Rembrandt...

but he also studied the great Italian masters. 

During his time in Rome, Bloch gained recognition for his amusing paintings of street vendors and monks, but it was four large history paintings that established his reputation as an artist. 

These paintings, met with national acclaim in Denmark, led to Bloch’s commission for the 23 paintings in the King’s Oratory at Frederiksborg Castle and for eight large altar paintings for Danish churches.

In his day, Bloch was one of the best-known Danish painters. His work was noted for its dramatic composition, theatrical use of light and dark tones, and bold, realistic figures. 

Though his prolific body of work included more than 250 paintings and 78 etchings spanning a variety of subjects, Bloch valued his religious works as some of his most meaningful contributions.

[bron]