Tyrkiske kar og en kande 1836

Martinus Rørbye made this watercolor of Turkish vessels while in Copenhagen, likely in the 1840s. It shows us how the culture of the Ottoman Empire was consumed in Northern Europe during the 19th century. Rørbye belonged to the Danish Golden Age movement, a period when Danish artists cultivated national pride by representing local landscapes and history. His travels, however, took him to exotic locales, including a sojourn in Constantinople. Back in Denmark, Rørbye would have exhibited such works at the Charlottenborg Palace, the home of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was a member. The Danish art world of the 1800s was deeply concerned with questions of national identity. What did it mean to be Danish, and how could artists capture the unique qualities of Danish culture? And how should the nation position itself relative to other parts of the world? By studying Rørbye’s artistic output and the archives of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, we might better understand the nuances of this cultural exchange.