The Harbor of Copenhagen from the Esplanade between Langelinie Park and Toldboden or the Customs House

The Harbor of Copenhagen from the Esplanade between Langelinie Park and Toldboden or the Customs House

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During his time as a student at the Royal Academy, Eckersberg supported himself by making drawings of well-known locations in Copenhagen. In this view he filled the harbor with ships of all kinds, many proudly flying the Danish flag. The profusion of ships belies the utter devastation of Denmark’s navy and merchant fleet as a result of bombardment by the British in 1807. When this drawing was made, in fact, the Kingdom of Denmark was actively fighting the British in the Gunboat War and the nation was plunging toward bankruptcy. None of this turmoil is evident in Eckersberg’s idyll, in which fashionably dressed civilians, watched over by a lone soldier, seem to be at peace and prosperous. The only vestiges of war are the battery of cannons lining the promenade.


Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Harbor of Copenhagen from the Esplanade between Langelinie Park and Toldboden or the Customs HouseThe Harbor of Copenhagen from the Esplanade between Langelinie Park and Toldboden or the Customs HouseThe Harbor of Copenhagen from the Esplanade between Langelinie Park and Toldboden or the Customs HouseThe Harbor of Copenhagen from the Esplanade between Langelinie Park and Toldboden or the Customs HouseThe Harbor of Copenhagen from the Esplanade between Langelinie Park and Toldboden or the Customs House

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.