Portrett av Maren Juel c. 1780s

Jens Juel painted this portrait of Maren Juel using oil on canvas. Juel was a leading portraitist in Denmark, painting members of the royal family and the nobility. This painting shows a woman who clearly belongs to the upper classes, yet the image isn't as formal as other portraits that came out of this period. Juel has portrayed Maren with a certain naturalness, which marks a shift away from the more stilted conventions of aristocratic portraiture. By the late 18th century, the Enlightenment was in full swing, and new ideas about individual rights and freedoms were taking hold. The art world was also changing, with artists beginning to challenge the old ways of doing things and experimenting with new styles and techniques. By making portraits more lifelike, artists were able to express the values of enlightenment: personal freedom, reason and objective truth. Historians consult a range of sources – letters, diaries, financial records, newspaper articles, and institutional archives – in order to discover the social conditions that shape artistic production.