Carl Heinrich Bloch (23 May 1834 – 22 February 1890) was a Danish artist.

Biography

Carl Bloch - In a Roman Osteria - Google Art Project

He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and studied there at the Royal Danish Academy of Art (''Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi'') under

Wilhelm Marstrand Nicolai Wilhelm Marstrand (24 December 1810 – 25 March 1873), painter and illustrator, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to Nicolai Jacob Marstrand, instrument maker and inventor, and Petra Othilia Smith. Marstrand is one of the most renowned art ...

. Bloch's parents wanted their son to enter what they considered to be a respectable profession - an officer in the Navy. This, however, was not what he wanted. His only interest was drawing and painting, and he was consumed by the idea of becoming an artist. He went to Italy to study art, passing through the Netherlands, where he became acquainted with the work of

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

, which became a major influence on him.BYU Magazine, Winter 2011. Bloch met his wife, Alma Trepka, in Rome, where he married her on 31 May 1868. They were happily married until her early death in 1886. His early work featured rural scenes from everyday life. From 1859 to 1866, Bloch lived in Italy, and this period was important for the development of his historical style. His first great success was the exhibition of his "Prometheus Unbound" in Copenhagen in 1865. After the death of Marstrand, he finished the decoration of the ceremonial hall at the University of Copenhagen. The sorrow over losing his wife weighed heavily on Bloch, and being left alone with their eight children after her death was very difficult for him. In a New Year's letter from 1866 to Bloch, H. C. Andersen wrote the following: "What God has arched on solid rock will not be swept away!" Another letter from Andersen declared "Through your art you add a new step to your Jacob-ladder into immortality." In a final ode, from a famous author to a famous artist, H.C. Andersen said "Write on the canvas; write your seal on immortality. Then you will become noble here on earth." He was then commissioned to produce 23 paintings for the King's Chapel at Frederiksborg Palace. These were all scenes from the life of Christ which have become very popular as illustrations. The originals, painted between 1865 and 1879, are still at Frederiksborg Palace. The altarpieces can be found at

Holbæk Holbæk () is a town in Denmark and the seat of Holbæk municipality with a population of 29,608 (1 January 2022).Odense, Ugerløse and Copenhagen in Denmark, as well as

Löderup Löderup is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality situated in Ystad Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 550 inhabitants in 2010. Medieval Löderup Church lies in Löderup. References

Populated places in Ystad Municipality Populated p ...

Hörup Hörup ( da, Hørup) is a municipality in the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous count ...

, and Landskrona in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

Death and eulogies

Bloch died of cancer on February 22, 1890. His death came as "an abrupt blow for Nordic art" according to an article by Sophus Michaelis. Michaelis stated that "Denmark has lost the artist that indisputably was the greatest among the living." Kyhn stated in his eulogy at Bloch's funeral that "Bloch stays and lives." A prominent Danish art critic, Karl Madsen, stated that Bloch reached higher toward the great heaven of art than all other Danish art up to that date. Madsen also said "If there is an Elysium, where the giant, rich, warm and noble artist souls meet, there Carl Bloch will sit among the noblest of them all!" (From Carl Bloch Site).

Influence on art of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

For over 40 years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made heavy use of Bloch's paintings, mostly from the Frederiksborg Palace collection, in its church buildings and printed media. The church has produced films depicting scriptural accounts of Christ's public ministry, using Bloch's paintings as models for the colour, light and overall set design, as well as the movement of the actors in many of the films' scenes. The most notable example of this is the 2000 film ''

The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd The Joseph Smith Memorial Building, originally called the Hotel Utah, is a social center located on the corner of Main Street and South Temple in Salt Lake City. It is named in honor of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement ...

''. The church's interest in Bloch's work was generally kickstarted with

Doyle L. Green Doyle LeRoy Green (1915 – November 23, 1975) was editor of the ''Improvement Era'' and later of the ''Ensign'', '' New Era'', and ''Friend'' magazines for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Biography From 1936 to 1939 ...

, who valued the classically-trained realism of his artwork, as opposed to the trend towards abstraction in contemporary art of the time. It has been further argued that the Protestant lack of iconographic features in his works, as well as the lack of ' 'Catholic' motifs such as halos and wings, also helped to make his artworks comfortable for Latter-day Saint audiences. Through the assistance of Danish-born artist

Soren Edsberg Soren Edsberg (born ''Søren Edsberg'', 1945) was a Danish-born American painter. His work has been highly praised by Alexandre Cirici Pellicer. He was the son of Knud Edsberg who was also a painter. First Knud and then Soren joined the Church o ...

(born 1945), the acquisition of ''Christ healing at the pool of Bethesda'', ormerly owned by Indre Mission, Copenhagen, Denmark was made possible for Brigham Young University's (BYU)

Museum of Art A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

. A second work by Bloch, an 1880 grisaille version of ''The Mocking of Christ'', was purchased by BYU in June 2015.

Gallery

File:The Shepherds and the Angel.jpg, ''The Shepherds and the Angel'' File:Carl Heinrich Bloch - Jesus Tempted.jpg, ''Jesus Tempted'' File:Christhealingthesick.jpg, ''Christ healing the sick'' File:Healing of the Blind Man by Jesus Christ.jpg, ''Healing of the Blind Man by Jesus Christ'' File:Carl Heinrich Bloch - Woman at the Well.jpg, '' Woman at the Well'' Image:Bloch-SermonOnTheMount.jpg, ''The

Sermon on the Mount The Sermon on the Mount (anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: ) is a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus of Nazareth found in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5, 6, and 7). that emphasizes his moral teachings. It is ...

'' File:Transfiguration bloch.jpg, ''Transfiguration'' File:Carl Heinrich Bloch - Suffer the Children.jpg, ''Suffer the Children'' File:RaisingofLazarusBloch.jpg, ''Raising of Lazarus'' File:The-Last-Supper-large.jpg, '' The Last Supper'' File:Gethsemane Carl Bloch.jpg, ''Gethsemane'' File:Christ at the Cross - Cristo en la Cruz.jpg, ''Christ on the Cross'' File:BurialofChrist CarlBloch.jpg, ''Burial of Christ'' File:TheResurrectionOfChrist.jpg, ''The Resurrection Of Christ''

References

Biography and Online Gallery of Carl Bloch, Hope Gallery and CarlBlock.com, 2007
retrieved on: July 22, 2007

External links