A Bedroom in Bernstorff Palace near Copenhagen

Gertner, a later pupil of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783–1853), specialized in portraits, though he also produced interior scenes and landscapes. He embraced a technique that prioritized the precisionist treatment of the human figure and of the surfaces of things. In this respect, he rivalled his French contemporaries Paul Delaroche (1797–1856) and Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904), as well as the recently developed medium of photography itself. Danish Golden Age painters encompassing Eckersberg and his followers, Christen Købke (1810–1848) foremost among them, were fastidious painters by and large; yet their work seems painterly alongside Gertner’s obsessive fineness.

Gertner’s reputation as a portraitist can be gauged by the fact that he painted several likenesses of the Danish king, Christian VIII (r. 1840–48), including scenes of his coronation (1840; Museum of National History, Frederiksborg, and Danish Royal Collection, Rosenborg) and a formal portrait (1845, Gisselfeld Kloster). The royal association likely led to the opportunity to paint this interior, a bedroom in Bernstorff Palace at Gentofte, near Copenhagen. The palace is an early example of the Neoclassical style in Denmark. It was constructed between 1759 and 1765 by French architect Nicolas-Henri Jardin (1720–1799) for Danish foreign minister Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff (1712–1772), in whose family it remained until 1812. After changing hands a number of times, in 1842 the palace was bought by King Christian, who thoroughly renovated it. Perhaps its redecoration prompted Gertner to paint this room, whose curved wall indicates that it was located in the palace’s central tower.

The ceiling and walls are covered in a delicate pink floral-patterned voile, rendered with virtuoso brushwork. Furniture and decorative accessories are silhouetted against a window. These include two vases filled with delicate bouquets placed on either side of a vanity. The vanity is flanked by gueridons; the one on the left supports a basin and the one on the right, a pitcher. The tufted corner of a blue silk-upholstered sofa or bed projects into the space at the lower left.

Light entering through the window leads to the softening of fine details. The mirror on the vanity reflects a mirror elsewhere in the room, which transmits the filtered light from the window back at the vanity, contributing understated complexity to the scene. In sum, the balance between fine detail and the dematerialization of form owing to the softness of the light that bathes the room is its primary and most essential feature. Gertner’s choice of a vertical format renders this effect more pronounced because it creates a sense of intimacy, a characteristic feature of Biedermeier taste. By contrast, for a full range of examples of the horizontal format often used for renderings of interiors during the same period—typically these are watercolors rather than oil paintings—see Mario Praz, An Illustrated History of Interior Decoration from Pompeii to Art Nouveau (trans. William Weaver, New York, 1964 and later eds.).

Asher Miller 2019

sale (auction 460), Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, May 2–21, 1984, no. 42, as "Soveværelseinteriør, muligvis fra karnappen på Bernstorff Slot" [Bedroom Interior, possibly from the Bay Window at Bernstorff Castle]); [Bury Street Gallery, London, 1984; sold July 27 for £10,000 to Thaw]; Eugene V. Thaw, New York (1984–d. 2018)

For a collection of thematically related works assembled by Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw, today in the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, New York, see Gail S. Davidson, Floramae McCarron-Cates, and Charlotte Gere, House Proud: Nineteenth-Century Watercolor Interiors from the Thaw Collection (exh. cat., New York, 2008).