Jens Juel (painter)

Jens Juul
Self-Portrait at the Easel (1766)
Born	12 March 1745(1745-03-12) Falster, Denmark
Died	27 December 1802(1802-12-27) (aged 57) Copenhagen
Nationality	Danish
Field	Painting
Training	Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

Jens Juel (12 May 1745 – 27 December 1802) was a Danish painter, primarily known for his many portraits, of which the largest collection is on display at Frederiksborg Castle.

Early life and career

He was born in the house of his mother's brother Johan Jørgensen, who was a school teacher in Balslev on the island of Funen. Jens Juel was the illegitimate son of Vilhelmine Elisabeth Juel (January 1725 – March 1799), who served at Wedellsborg, and a fine gentleman, probably a Wedell or Lord Jens Juel. When Juel was one year old, his mother married Jørgen Jørgensen (1724 – 4 June 1796), who was a schoolmaster in Gamborg, not far from Balslev, and he grew up in Gamborg.

He showed an interest in painting from an early age, and his parents sent him to be an apprentice of painter Johann Michael Gehrman in Hamburg, where he worked hard for five or six years and improved so much that he acquired a reputation as a painter of portraits, landscapes, etc. At just over twenty years old, he moved to Copenhagen to attend the Royal Danish Academy of Art. In 1767 he was awarded its small gold medal and in 1771 the large gold medal.

Landscape with Northern Lights - Attempt to Paint the Aurora Borealis, 1790s.

In 1772 he left Copenhagen, moving to Rome where he stayed for four years together with other Danish artists, including Nicolai Abildgaard. From Rome, he moved to Paris, at the time a center of portrait painting. In 1777 he moved on to Geneva, where he stayed for two years at the home of his friend Charles Bonnet in the company of other Danish artists, including etcher Johann Friderich Clemens. In Geneva, Juel soon earned himself a reputation as an excellent artist, and he painted many portraits. Through Bonnet, who had become an honorary member of the Danish Academy, his reputation reached Denmark. After a brief stay in Hamburg, where he met and painted a portrait of the celebrated poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, author of The Messiah, he returned to Copenhagen in 1780. Here he painted portraits for the royal house, nobility, and the well-to-do, as well as landscapes and genre paintings.

On 4 April 1782, he was unanimously elected to be a member of the Danish Academy by Mandelberg, Weidenhaupt, and Abildgaard. He became the director of the Academy in 1795.

See also

• Art of Denmark

External links

• KID Kunst Index Danmark ("Art Index Denmark")
• Danish Biographical Encyclopedia ("Dansk biografisk Leksikion")

Cultural offices
Preceded by Johannes Wiedewelt	Director of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts 1795–1797	Succeeded by Peter Meyn
Preceded by Peter Meyn	Director of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts 1799–1801	Succeeded by Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard