Sonne is undoubtedly one of the standard bearers of National Romanticism, but A Battlefield the Morning after a Battle was painted in Rome in 1833 after Sonne had just completed several years of study at Munich. Nor is the motif Danish. It is about Bavarian soldiers who have set up camp in the open air during the Napoleonic wars.
Sonne returned from his travels abroad in 1841, and in 1844, the art historian N. L. Høyen gave the lecture – On the Conditions for the Development of a Scandinavian National Art – which really gave the impetus to National Romanticism. It was only as a result of this that Sonne was won for the national cause, which not least was seen in battle scenes from Dybbøl (1848) and Isted (1850), where Denmark came out well. On the other hand, the defeat in 1864 scarcely held the same attraction for the patriotic Sonne.
