Jens Juel
Portrait of Christophe Battier
Oil on canvas (relined). 79 x 63 cm.
Signed and dated lower left: Malet af [painted by] J Juel København d. 24. Juli 1772 (on the open book)..
Jens Juel was certainly one of, if not the first, Danish artist to rise to international fame during his lifetime. He was the most sought-after portraitist in his homeland of Denmark, receiving numerous commissions from the royal family, the aristocracy, and the upper classes. Following his training at the Hamburg studio of Johann Michael Gehrmann, in around 1760 Juel moved on to the Copenhagen Academy, which had been founded just a few years previously. He then embarked on an eight year Grand Tour which led him through many of Europe's great artistic centres including Vienna, Paris, Venice, and Rome, where he also made the acquaintance of Pompeo Batoni. Juel arrived back in Copenhagen in 1780 and was immediately appointed royal court painter. He was also offered a professorship at the Copenhagen Academy and became its director for two periods. He also ran a studio with numerous employees.
Although the sitter of this portrait makes an open and friendly impression, he was in fact a very colourful personality. Christophe Battier was born in Switzerland in 1733 and naturalised as an English citizen in 1760. Ten years later he is documented in Copenhagen working as an accountant for the Danish East India Company. In 1783, newspapers in Copenhagen report his bankruptcy: His shares and possessions were sold and Battier was forced to flee the country. Battier finally shot himself in the gardens of Tuileries Palace in Paris in 1786, apparently after losing his last remaining funds in the lottery. In happier times in Denmark, Christophe Battier married Anna Elisabeth Storp, a burgher's daughter from Copenhagen, in 1772. A portrait of her by Jens Juel is today housed in the Statens Museum for Kunst (inv. no. KMS3634). This portrait of her husband is dated 1772, which indicates that it may have been commissioned on occasion of their wedding.
Provenance
Collection of Emil Glückstadt (1875-1923), Copenhagen, together with the pendant portrait of his wife Anna Elisabeth Battier. - Auctioned by Winkel & Magnussen 17, 1923, lot 164. – Acquired there by Generalkonsul C. F. Glad. – Auctioned by Winkel & Magnussen 100, 1931, lot 417 (illus. p. 33). – Acquired there by the merchant Chr. U. Jacobsen. – Auctioned by ABR 233, 1969, lot 166 (illus. on the frontispiece). – Acquired there by Ejler J. H. Ruge (1896-1982). - Lizzie Ruge (1911-2007), Raadegaard. – Auctioned by Bruun Rasmussen, 28.11.2011, lot 4. – Scandinavian private collection.
Literature
Carl V. Petersen, in: Juleroser, 1930, p. 10. - Winkel, V. & Magnussen (ed.): Kunst i privat Eje, Kopenhagen 1945, vol. 2, p. 214, illus. p. 215. - Ellen Poulsen: Jens Juel, Kopenhagen 1961, pl. 34.
Exhibitions
Jens Juel. Malerier i privat eje, Copenhagen, Kunstforeningen, 16.11.-12.12.1982, no. 24.