On his first visit to Rome, 1833 to 1834, H. C. Andersen met the Danish artist Albert Küchler who made the first known portrait drawing of the Danish fairytale king. In 2025, the oldest known portrait drawing of H. C. Andersen is scheduled to be exhibited in Odense, Denmark.
It took a good deal of nail-biting, patience and financial support before Museum Odense succeeded in securing the very special and valuable object for H.C. Andersen’s House – namely the oldest nown portrait drawing of H.C. Andersen, which has been preserved.
On 10 June 2024, the portrait was on offer at the Bruun-Rasmussen art auctions, but the museum lost the bidding and had to see the drawing go to an anonymous, foreign buyer.
When the drawing is now included in H.C. The Andersen collections at Museum Odense it is due to the Cultural Values Committee, which administers the Act on Safeguarding Cultural Values in Denmark, and which since 1987 has had the task of ensuring that rare works of art and cultural objects cannot be taken out of the country without permission.
The foreign buyer of the portrait applied to the Cultural Values Committee for permission to take the drawing out of Denmark, but the committee imposed an export ban when the Cultural Values Committee assessed that Albert Küchler’s portrait drawing of H.C. Andersen should remain in Denmark.
The Oldest Portrait Drawing of H. C. Andersen to be Exhibited in Odense, Denmark, article continues below the image.
Against this background, the buyer chose to accept a purchase offer, which Museum Odense with the support of the New Carlsberg Foundation and the contribution of H.C. Andersen’s Foundation had the opportunity to submit.
In this way, the museum succeeded in the second round in buying the youth portrait of H.C. Andersen and thus ensure that a piece of Danish cultural heritage remains within the country’s borders and not least in public ownership.
When H.C. Andersen arrived in the Italian capital in October 1833, the peer painter was one of those who welcomed him, and during January 1834 Albert Küchler portrayed the 28-year-old H.C. Andersen.
The story of the creation of the drawing is that Albert Küchler executed a portrait in the beginning of January 1834, which today is displayed in the National History Museum at Frederiksborg Castle. On 31 January 1834, he executed a second portrait with silver pen and pencil – or precisely the drawing that Museum Odense has acquired for the collection in H.C. Andersen’s House.
The Oldest Portrait Drawing of H. C. Andersen to be Exhibited in Odense, Denmark, article continues below the image.
The drawing originally belonged to Albert Küchler himself and was later handed over to the Scandinavian Association in Rome, from where it, along with the association’s other friendship portraits, was separated from the collections in 2024 and offered for sale.
Albert Küchler (1803-1886) was a Danish painter associated with the Danish Golden Age. He mainly painted genre works and portraits. He was highly esteemed by his contemporaries but is little known today.
The Oldest Portrait Drawing of H. C. Andersen to be Exhibited in Odense, Denmark, reported by Tor Kjolberg