Kunstneren Jens Juel og det videnskabelige blik på naturen

Abstract

The Artist Jens Juel and the Scientific Gaze on Nature

The article analyzes a selection of landscape paintings by the Danish artist Jens Juel (1745–1802) in relation to discourses on natural history in the late eighteenth century. Although Juel painted the northern lights, the thunder and the hoar frost, his interest in nature has traditionally been regarded and explained away as superficial. The article challenges this notion by drawing in contemporary discourses on natural history, which provide new perspectives on Juel’s depiction of nature. The biographical fact that Juel was a member of the scientific society Naturhistorie-Selskabet in Copenhagen supports this contextualization and makes it possible to connect the artist more directly with contemporary scientific ideas and scientists. As a result, the article points to a number of hitherto undiscovered scientific references in Juel’s works, which are unearthed and used for analytical purposes.

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