A fine 19th-century oil on canvas depicting a picturesque wooded area with deer, a pond and some mature trees.

The artist Axel Thorsen Schovelin (1827-1893) was a precocious talent and he joined the Academy of Fine Arts at the age of just 12. He enjoyed painting the beautiful countryside around the City and this could be an area within Jægersborg Dyrehave.

Jægersborg Dyrehave or ‘The Deer Park’ is a forest park north of the capital that’s known for its large populations of red and fallow deer. Schovelin often came here to paint and had a particular fondness for its ancient oak trees. Towards the end of his life, he published a collection of etchings, ‘Strange Old Danish Trees in Particular Oak and Beech’, which were highly regarded in their day.

The painting is signed in the lower right and housed within a period frame that could be its original.

Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 39” x 29” / 99cm x 73cm
Year of creation: c. 1870
Provenance: Denmark
Condition: Artwork in good condition with one professional repair and light restoration.
Artist’s auction highlight: £13,206 achieved at a Danish auction for ‘Parti af Landsbyen Kragholm paa Faareveildgods paa Langeland’.