24. Janus La Cour

Thimagard, near Ringkøbing 1837 – 1909 Odder, Denmark

Olive Trees near Tivoli, 1869

A second-generation Eckersberg follower, the Danish landscape painter Janus La Cour was greatly influenced by his friend and mentor P.C. Skovgaard (1817–1875). He joined the Copenhagen Academy in 1857, and received several bursaries that allowed him to travel to France, Switzerland and Italy, which he visited regularly from 1865. During a visit to Tivoli in 1869, La Cour ignored the famous waterfall and architectural motifs to paint a detailed study of an ancient olive grove. He clearly delighted in the play of light and shade on the gnarled tree-trunks and the flickering sunlight reflected on the leaves. Though certainly painted directly before the motif, the study is dated Tivoli 18-30 April at lower left. This suggests that the artist was following another of Valenciennes’s recommendations, returning to his subject for brief sessions over several days, at times when he could be sure of working in consistent light conditions. La Cour’s fastidious approach to painting out-of-doors was somewhat at odds with the newer currents developing within French landscape painting, which the artist criticised for its predilection for “thick colour and clumsy brush”.1

1“tyk farve og klodset pensel”, https://biografiskleksikon.lex.dk/Janus_la_Cour.