Constantin Hansen
Portrait of Alfred Hage, 1851
Pencil, charcoal and black chalk on paper, 455 x 372 mm.
Inventory number: 0187NMK
Gift from Anders Koch, 2001
Constantin Hansen (1804-1880)
Constantin Hansen received his initial training from his father, Hans Hansen, who was a portrait painter. Later, he studied under C.W. Eckersberg and his paintings became more classical in composition with tight, symmetrical structuring. Constantin Hansen was an excellent colourist and in many of his sketches, he anticipated the colour handling and painterly technique of the Impressionists. In 1860-64, he carried out the huge painting The Danish Constitutional Assembly, which now hangs at Frederiksborg Museum. The painting was commissioned by Johannes Hage’s father, Alfred Hage, and hung in the dining room at the family’s home in Harsdorff’s Palace on Kongens Nytorv (no. 3, the white palace to the right of Charlottenborg).
