Nicolai Abildgaards tegningssamling

This article is concerned with the reconstruction of the private art collection formed by the Danish neoclassical painter Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard (1743-1809). Being a highly intellectual and somewhat idiosyncratic artist, Abildgaard’s artistic and literary pursuits have attracted much attention in recent years. His activities as an art collector, however, have remained unstudied. Archival research has allowed us to identify a number of drawings and paintings from the Abildgaard collection in the Statens Museum for Kunst and elsewhere, which shed new light on his artistic ideals, his working methods and his art historical connoisseurship. It also places him more firmly in a broader international context. Furthermore these studies reveal hitherto unknown knowledge about the art market and collections of art in Copenhagen at the turn of the 18th century.