Artwork
The Death of Queen Sophie Amalie
The Death of Queen Sophie Amalie is an oil painting by the Realist artist Kristian Zahrtmann. It dates from 1892 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The composition emphasizes the monarch’s peaceful passing while subtly underscoring the political significance of her demise for the Danish court.
The painting represents the death of Queen Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1685, a pivotal moment in Danish history. Zahrtmann depicts the queen on her deathbed, surrounded by attendants whose gestures and expressions convey solemnity and grief. The composition emphasizes the monarch’s peaceful passing while subtly underscoring the political significance of her demise for the Danish court.
By focusing on the queen’s final moments, the work memorializes a historical figure whose influence extended beyond personal piety into the governance of the realm during a time of dynastic transition.
Technique & Style
Executed in 1882, this history painting by Kristian Zahrtmann utilizes oil paint applied to a canvas support. The work presents a large-scale composition, measuring 925 cm in height and 865 cm in width. As a piece within the history painting genre, it visually narrates the death of Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The artwork is currently held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
History & Provenance
The painting was created in 1882 by Kristian Zahrtmann, who executed it in oil paint on canvas as a work of history painting.
It is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst, where it remains located. The sources do not provide further details regarding the commission, prior ownership, or earlier provenance of the work prior to its accession into the museum's collection.
Kristian Zahrtmann's 1882 oil painting, The Death of Queen Sophie Amalie, is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen. The work, measuring 92.5 cm in height and 86.5 cm in width, is cataloged within the museum's holdings as a history painting depicting the death of Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg. No specific accession number or exhibition history is provided in the available sources.
Context
Kristian Zahrtmann's 1882 oil painting The Death of Queen Sophie Amalie, housed in the Statens Museum for Kunst, was created during a period when Danish history painting engaged with national identity and royal legacy. The work depicts the 17th-century queen consort Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg at the moment of her death, reflecting contemporary artistic interest in historical female figures and courtly tragedy. Zahrtmann, active in the late 19th century, specialized in emotionally charged historical scenes that often reinterpreted Danish royal narratives through a realist lens, situating his practice within broader European developments in academic figuration while maintaining a distinct national subject matter.
Overview
Kristian Zahrtmann’s 1892 oil on canvas, The Death of Queen Sophie Amalie, presents a late‑19th‑century Danish interpretation of a historic moment. The painting is housed in the Statens Museum for Kunst and belongs to Zahrtmann’s body of work that broke with the Academic conventions of earlier Danish art.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Peder Henrik Kristian Zahrtmann, known as Kristian Zahrtmann, (31 March 1843 – 22 June 1917) was a Danish painter.
