Thorald Læssøe

Thorald Læssøe
Born25 June 1816
Frederikshavn, Denmark
Died25 March 1878 (aged 61)
Copenhagen, Denmark
EducationRoyal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
Spouse
Emy Francisca Erhardine Tidonia
(m. 1857; died 1863)
Children2
RelativesFrederik Læssøe (brother)
Signature

Thorald Læssøe (25 June 1816 – 25 March 1878) was a Danish landscape painter active during the Danish Golden Age. Several of his paintings are owned by the National Gallery of Denmark.[1]

Biography

Læssøe was born in 1816 in Frederikshavn to Niels Frederik Læssøe, a customs inspector, and his second wife, Margrethe Juliane Signe Læssøe (née Abrahamson). Læssøe was the brother of Army officer Frederik Læssøe, numismatist Ludvig Læssøe, and priest Kristian Frederik Læssøe.[1][2] As a teenager, he decided to become an artist after initially planning to study civil service.[1]

Although he was primarily self-taught, Læssøe had periodically attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1834 to 1839, where he was a student of Christian Holm and briefly Christen Købke. He spent the following decades residing in various cities across Europe, such as Basel, Prague, and Rome.[2][3][4]

Læssøe belonged to the circle of Lorenz Frølich, Jens Adolf Jerichau, J.T. Lundbye, and P. C. Skovgaard but did not reach the same degree of their popularity.[2]

In 1857, Læssøe married Emy Francisca Erhardine Tidonia. After she died in 1863, he lived in Rome for a second time with his two children from 1866 to 1868. Læssøe died in 1878 in Copenhagen, aged 61.[1][2]

Selected works

References

  1. ^ a b c d Weilbach, Philip (1877). Dansk Konstnerlexikon [Danish Artists' Dictionary] (in Danish). Høst & Søn. p. 439. Retrieved 27 August 2025 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ a b c d "Thorald Læssøe". Agency for Culture and Palaces (in Danish). Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  3. ^ "Thorald Læssøe – A Sunny Street at Tivoli". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  4. ^ Andersen, Hans. H.C. Andersen's Diaries 1825–1875 - Volume 4: 1851–1860 (PDF) (in Danish). The Danish Language and Literature Company, 1974. p. 401. ISBN 8712023639. Retrieved 27 August 2025 – via Claus Rønlev.