Jens Juel

Today, the works of Jens Juel (1745-1802) sit across national collections in Europe; he has been called the ‘Danish Reynolds’ and the ‘Bruegel of the Enlightenment’, with an oeuvre that is said to resemble Gainsborough. Certainly, he was known at the time for his portraiture of elite individuals and their families, having passed through the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In 1771, he was awarded the Great Gold Medal for a work of biblical subject matter, highlighting his range as an artist. Landscape painting, in a nationalistic guise supported by Danish patrons, was also a key part of his artistic output. Fundamentally, however, Juel shaped the visual identity of Denmark’s royal and bourgeois classes at the turn of the nineteenth century, developing a refined visual language to portray the cosmopolitan elite. He became director of the Danish Academy in 1795, remaining in post until his death.