Luftstudie. Rødlig aftenhimmel med tunge sortgra skyer (Air study. Reddish evening sky with heavy Black-Grey Clouds)

Christen Købke studied at the Art Academy as a teenager and went on to study with C.W. Eckersber, Denmark's leading Golden Age painter. A favourite of Hammershøi's, he is today one of Denmark's most beloved painters, and many of his paintings have acquired a status as national monuments. Købke is particularly well loved for his many views of his contemporary Copenhagen. Highly atmospheric and luminous, they embody the Golden Age movement. Frequently, the sky is given speical dominance in his landscapes, taking up almost all of the space, with the city barely visible towards the bottom. In other works, Købke focuses purely on the sky itself, painting air. The immaterial qualities of light are masterfully captured and following meteorological precision, and the clouds assume a narrative function in themselves. Paying as much attention to the particularities of the clouds as he would to a facce, he literally achieves the equivalent to a portrait. Cloud painting was a highly regarded academic discipline in Europe at this time, favoured by Turner, Constable, Denis and Valenciennes. Although it is not certain that Købke was directly inspired by these artists, a common fascination with the formless language of the sky is evident.