Jens Peter Møller

Jens Peter Møller (4 October 1783 Faaborg - 29 September 1854) was a Danish painter.^[1]

Early life

Møller was a landscape painter and son of a potter. Born in Faaborg, he grew up with a relative in Eckernförde in Schleswig. Together with his fellow painter and friend Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Møller moved to Copenhagen in 1803 to study at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. At the Academy, he won the silver medal and was the first student of Nicolai Abildgaard, and later taught by Christian August Lorentzen.^[2]

Career

Christian VIII of Denmark supported Møller as a patron. At the same time, he decided to learn how to restore paintings, so in 1810 he received travel grant, partly by the Prince's support. He first traveled to Brussels and from there to Paris. In Paris he studied partly its technical subjects, partly made landscape studies of nature and by copying examples of works by Claude Lorrain. Here he met again Eckersberg and lived with him in 1813, when the latter traveled to Rome.

As early as 1814 Møller had been appointed curator at the royal collection of paintings and was for some years a drawing teacher for midshipmen. From 1841, he also supervision of the paintings on the royal castles. He received the medal in 1842 "Ingenio an arte" for a difficult restoration of Queen Caroline Amalie's portrait. From 1834 he was also curator (inspector) of Count Carl Moltke's painting collection.^[2]

At the Christiansborg Palace, he painted his four major landscapes from Switzerland and Tyrol. The Royal Painting Collection owns eight pictures of his. Møller was also conscientious teacher for the younger landscape painters at the Academy, and he introduced cash prizes in landscape art.^[2]

References