This mid-19th-century oil painting by Danish artist Carl Frederik Aagaard (1833-1895) depicts a leafy view at Dyrehaven (the Deerpark), north of Copenhagen. It’s an accomplished work rendered in gentle tonal shifts.Born in Odense, the son of a shoemaker, Aagaard initially studied locally before travelling to Copenhagen to enrol at the prestigious Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. His early tuition was a formal affair with the emphasis placed upon drawing and studying models from antiquity. Students were expected to hone their technique by analysing the masters of old.It appears he left early to pursue tuition under landscape painter, P. C. Skovgaard, known for his expansive portrayals of rural Denmark. Skovgaard studied nature first-hand, undertaking sketching tours during the warmer months before translating these into oils during Winter. There’s poetry to his works, a sense of lyricism - each tree conveyed with character and evocatively lit by brilliant Nordic light.Aaga...