Carl Balsgaard

He studied under Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, with the intent of becoming a figure painter, and won a small silver medal for live model drawing in 1841.

[1] However, in 1835, he had exhibited a series of still lifes and, when it became necessary to support himself by his work, he turned to painting fruits and flowers on porcelain.

[1] In 1843, the year he was married, he competed for the Neuhausenske Prize [da] with a portrait of Bertel Thorvaldsen, but was unsuccessful.

[2] After that, he devoted most of his time to fruit and flower painting and, in 1855, received a grant from the Academy that would allow him to study abroad for two years.

[2] In 1865, he applied for the post of Director of the Royal Art Collection (now the National Gallery of Denmark), but the position went to C.J.