Skip navigation
Christen Henriksen Pram, E2299

Explanation

  • Andreas Flint (1767-1824) is especially known for his numerous portrait miniatures executed as engravings. Among these is the portrait of the author and public servant Christen Henriksen Pram, who lived from 1756 to 1821. Flint’s portrait is based on one of Pram drawn by Bertel Thorvaldsen in 1795. We know some 50 such small, usually oval, portraits made by Thorvaldsen during his early days in Copenhagen before leaving for Rome in the autumn of 1796. Thorvaldsen’s portraits are either of figures from his circle of close friends or representatives of Copenhagen cultural life in the 1790s, a life in which Thorvaldsen was a keen participant. Christen Henriksen Pram was born in Norway, but he spent his entire youth and adult life in Denmark, living partly on positions in the government administration and partly by writing poems and plays and dissertations on economics and agriculture. His most famous dramatic work is the huge poem Stærkodder from 1785, which starts out from Saxo’s account of the achievements of the Danes in the Middle Ages. It must be assumed that it was Flint who asked Thorvaldsen to draw a portrait of Pram, which he could then use as the basis of his copperplate portrait.

Dimension

  • Height (paper size) 125 mm
  • Width (paper size) 95 mm
  • Inscription / Certification / Label

    Thorvaldsen del. / A. Flint fe / C. Pram