Home Online catalogues True to Nature. Open-air Painting 1780-1870 39. Martinus Rørbye Drammen 1803 – 1848 Copenhagen Hunter in a Grotto in Cervara, 1835 Born in Norway, Rørbye began his studies at the Academy in Copenhagen in 1820 as a pupil of C.A. Lorentzen (1749–1828), and from 1825 took private lessons from Eckersberg. He travelled extensively throughout Europe, venturing as far as Athens and Constantinople, and was among the first painters to work in Skagen, decades before the fishing village became a famed artists’ colony. He visited Italy three times, and painted this study during his first trip in 1834-35. Inscribed Cervara 1835, this oil sketch is one of five Rørbye made of the region in February of that year. About 50 kilometres east of Rome, Cervara is a picturesque medieval village perched on the cliffs of the Aniene river valley. Named after the large number of deer that lived in the area (cervi in Italian), Cervara attracted hunters as well as artists. The glowing red fire on the left and the figure of the well-dressed hunter, gun in hand, emerging into the daylight, give the scene an intriguing narrative aspect. This is rarely found in plein air oil studies, but is in line with Rørbye’s predilection for painting anecdotal genre scenes in addition to landscapes.
Born in Norway, Rørbye began his studies at the Academy in Copenhagen in 1820 as a pupil of C.A. Lorentzen (1749–1828), and from 1825 took private lessons from Eckersberg. He travelled extensively throughout Europe, venturing as far as Athens and Constantinople, and was among the first painters to work in Skagen, decades before the fishing village became a famed artists’ colony. He visited Italy three times, and painted this study during his first trip in 1834-35. Inscribed Cervara 1835, this oil sketch is one of five Rørbye made of the region in February of that year. About 50 kilometres east of Rome, Cervara is a picturesque medieval village perched on the cliffs of the Aniene river valley. Named after the large number of deer that lived in the area (cervi in Italian), Cervara attracted hunters as well as artists. The glowing red fire on the left and the figure of the well-dressed hunter, gun in hand, emerging into the daylight, give the scene an intriguing narrative aspect. This is rarely found in plein air oil studies, but is in line with Rørbye’s predilection for painting anecdotal genre scenes in addition to landscapes.