Orientalism | Martinus Rørbye

Mavi Boncuk | 

A Turkish notary drawing up a marriage contract the painting for which Rørbye won the Thorvaldsen Medal, 1837.

Painting by Martinus Rørbye from 1837 based on his sketches from his earlier travels. The scene is set outside the Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque.

En tyrkisk notarius opsætter en ægteskabskontrakt (1836)

A party of chess players outside a Turkish coffeehouse and barbershop (1844 - 1845)

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  This colored travel sketch of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) as seen from the eastern part of the town of Scutari (present-day Üsküdar) across the Bosporus Strait by the Danish painter Martinus Rørbye (1803--48), a central figure in the "Golden Age" of Danish art (circa 1770--1900). After training at the Kunstakademiet, Rørbye travelled widely, to France, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. 
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• In 1833 he was one of the first artists to paint in Skagen, in the far north of Denmark, some 45 years before it became an artists' haven. He spent the winter 1835--36 in Greece and Turkey.

The interior of a Turkish café

In Italy he traveled to Sorrento, the Sabine Mountains, and Sicily. The following year Rørbye traveled to Athens accompanied by the architect Michael Gottlieb Bindesbøll, one of the compatriots he had met in Rome. From there they continued to Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire, a rare adventure in those days. He sketched prodigiously during his travels.

Ved Toppana Moskeen (1835 - 1836)

Rørbye, Martinus 1803-1848

Martinus Christian Wesseltoft Rørbye (Danish17 May 1803 – 29 August 1848) was a Danish painter, known both for genre works and landscapes. He was a central figure of the Golden Age of Danish painting during the first half of the 19th century. He was also the first Danish painter to take to painting in Skagen at the northern top of Jutland, almost half a century before the thriving community of Skagen Painters formed and came to fame, through Michael Ancher, Anna Ancher and P.S. Krøyer.The most traveled of the Danish Golden Age painters, he traveled both north to Norway and Sweden and south to Italy, Greece and Constantinople. 

In 1834 Rørbye received a travel scholarship from the Academy on account of his talents as a portraitist. He traveled by way of the Netherlands and France to Rome, In Paris he met Peter Andreas Heiberg, August Bournonville and the French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.

When he arrived in Rome, he joined the city's thriving Danish artists community which had Bertel Thorvaldsen as its central figure. A Group of Danish Artists in Rome, is a painting depicting the artist in Rome, painted by Constantin Hansen. Rørbye is number two from the left sitting behind Bindesbøll who is lying on the floor with a fez he often wore after their visit to Constantinople. Also appearing in the picture are the painter himself, Marstrand, Küchler, Blunck and Jørgen Sonne, sitting on the table.

In Italy he traveled to Sorrento, the Sabine Mountains, and Sicily. The following year Rørbye traveled to Athens accompanied by the architect Michael Gottlieb Bindesbøll, one of the compatriots he had met in Rome. From there they continued to Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire, a rare adventure in those days. He sketched prodigiously during his travels.

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