Carl Frederik Aagaard

Carl Frederik Aagaard was a Danish landscape painter with a taste for sunny, well-loved places: forest clearings, lakes and, after his travels south, the terraces and pergolas of the Italian coast. His pictures are calm and carefully detailed, with clear light and a strong sense of place.

Born in Odense, he studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts under the landscape painter P.C. Skovgaard, and also trained in decorative painting, wood engraving and etching. His autumn view of the Jægersborg Dyrehave deer park was bought by the National Gallery of Denmark in 1865. He made long sketching trips to Italy in the 1870s, became a member of the Academy in 1874 and a professor in 1892, and also painted decorations for Danish buildings.

Scenes like Pergola in Amalfi show his Italian period at its best, with shaded foregrounds opening onto bright water.