Thorsaven

Title

Thorsaven

Description

View of the city Thorshavn on the island Streymoy the biggest of the Färöern Islands.

ca. 1850

Artist

Baerentzen (1799-1868)

Emilius Ditlev Bærentzen (1799- 1868), usually known as Emil Bærentzen, was a Danish painter and lithographer, active during the Golden Age of Danish painting. Born in Copenhagen in 1799, Bærentzen served an apprenticeship in the pharmacy in Nyköbing Sjælland but then traveled to Christiansted on the then Danish island of St. Croix in the West Indies where he worked in one of the government offices. Five years later he returned to Denmark and after qualifying as a lawyer, moved to the up to paint, then he had practiced as a hobby. In 1821 he entered the Academy of Arts he studied under Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg. He received the small silver medal in 1826 and the large silver medal the following year. He soon became one of Copenhagen's most popular portrait painters. His paintings were characterized by an elegant but simple style, free of psychological trimmings in keeping with contemporary practice. One of his most successful works is the portrait of Sören Kierkegaard's fiancée Regine Olsen (1840). In 1837 he began to specialize in lithography with H.L. Danschell, which led his late father-in-Law oilcloth factory where stones were used to dye the fabric. This led to the establishment of a lithographic company, Emilius Bärentzen & Co.s Litografiske Institut, which later Hoffensberg, Jespersen & Fr. Trap. Bærentzen made lithographs of many of the most important personalities of the time. He worked both as a lithographer and artist until 1866 when he painted the portrait of Cosmus Bræstrup for the Masonic Lodge in Elsinore.

Historical Description

The main immigration came in the 9th century by the Vikings, who moved west from Norway. After the Norwegian King Olav Tryggvason was baptized by the English King Aethelred in 994 and evangelized Norway the following year, he invited the respected Faroese chief Sigmundur Brestisson, who then converted to the Faroe Islands in 999 for the acceptance of Christianity the Faroese thing, today's Løgting, provided. From 1035 the archipelago belonged politically to Norway, but was able to maintain a high degree of independence due to the distance to the central power. In 1538 the Reformation reached the islands. This perpetuated the predominance of the Danish language. The son of the first Lutheran provost Heini Havreki was the naval hero Magnus Heinason, who was beheaded in Copenhagen in 1589 on charges of piracy and has since been venerated by many Faroese as a national hero. The Fork Age proved to be the darkest period for the Faroe Islands in the 17th century. This status did not change after the Peace of Kiel in 1814, as a result of which the Danish-Norwegian personal union was dissolved and Norway had to join a personal union with Sweden, but the Faroe Islands remained with Denmark together with Iceland and Greenland. From 1846, the work of the linguist V. U. Hammershaimb resulted in the written New Faroese language on an etymological basis. Until then, Faroese had been passed down orally in their own ballads. Hammershaimb and his successors founded Faroese literature and developed ancient linguistic monuments.