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In northern Europe, Denmark was the country that showed the most individual response to naturalism. Indeed, the first half of the nineteenth century is known as the "golden age" of Danish painting. There developed a particularly calm form of naturalism. the tendency started with the work of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg. After studying in Copenhagen under Nicolai Abildgaard, Eckersberg worked in David's studio and then in Rome (1813-16). His contact with French classical landscape gave him experience of the plein-air sketch, which was to be vital for his understanding of landscape. Although himself an aspiring history painter, it was these sharply observed studies, with their intense sense of light, that are his greatest contribution.
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