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Oil on canvas; 80 × 63.5 cm, 96.5 × 79.4 × 8.6 cm (frame). Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund (2002-348)","displaydate":"1812","medium":"Oil on canvas","media":[{"id":786,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/2002-348","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Luna Digitization Project"}],"displayperiod":null,"extended_content":true,"campuscollections":"false","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013)","citation":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 209","date":2013,"id":1994,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/865020505"},{"boilertext":"Henrik Bramsen, C.W. Eckersberg i Paris: dagbog og breve, 1810-13, (København: Thaning & Appel, 1947). ","citation":"Henrik Bramsen, C.W. Eckersberg i Paris: dagbog og breve, 1810-13, (København: Thaning & Appel, 1947). , p. 99, 136","date":1947,"id":5217,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/40366633"},{"boilertext":"Tegninger af C W Eckersberg, (København: Statens Museum for Kunst, 1983).","citation":"Tegninger af C W Eckersberg, (København: Statens Museum for Kunst, 1983)., p. 172","date":1983,"id":5218,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/220122400"},{"boilertext":"Allis Helleland, \"Fra kyklopens hule: C. W. Eckersberg: ‘Odysseus flygter fra Polyphem,’ 1812\", in Ernst Jonas Bencard, Anders Kold, Peter S. Meyer and Erik Fischer, eds., Kunstværkets krav: 27 fortolkninger af danske kunstværker, (København: Fogtdal, 1990).","citation":"Allis Helleland, \"Fra kyklopens hule: C. W. Eckersberg: ‘Odysseus flygter fra Polyphem,’ 1812\", in Ernst Jonas Bencard, Anders Kold, Peter S. Meyer and Erik Fischer, eds., Kunstværkets krav: 27 fortolkninger af danske kunstværker, (København: Fogtdal, 1990)., p. 59","date":1990,"id":5219,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/463993974"},{"boilertext":"Kaspar Monrad, \"Fra Odysseus' borg til Langebro i København: fire nyerhvervede malerier af C. W. Eckersberg\", Kunstmuseets årsskrift 68 (1990): p. 82-101.","citation":"Kaspar Monrad, \"Fra Odysseus' borg til Langebro i København: fire nyerhvervede malerier af C. W. Eckersberg\", Kunstmuseets årsskrift 68 (1990): p. 82-101., p. 88; p. 89, fig. 8","date":1990,"id":5220,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/887144401"},{"boilertext":"Richard J. Campbell and Victor Carlson, Visions of antiquity: neoclassical figure drawings, (Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Minneapolis, MN; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1993).","citation":"Richard J. Campbell and Victor Carlson, Visions of antiquity: neoclassical figure drawings, (Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Minneapolis, MN; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1993)., p. 324; mentioned in entry for cat. no. 114","date":1993,"id":5221,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/27812192"},{"boilertext":"Wiedergeburt griechischer Götter und Helden: Homer in der Kunst der Goethezeit, (Mainz am Rhein, Germany: P. von Zabern; Stendal, Germany: Winckelmann-Gesellschaft, 1999).","citation":"Wiedergeburt griechischer Götter und Helden: Homer in der Kunst der Goethezeit, (Mainz am Rhein, Germany: P. von Zabern; Stendal, Germany: Winckelmann-Gesellschaft, 1999)., p. 143","date":1999,"id":5222,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/434370757"},{"boilertext":"\"Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2002,\" Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 62 (2003): p. 107-161.","citation":"\"Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2002,\" Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 62 (2003): p. 107-161., p. 109 (illus.)","date":2003,"id":3022,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774824"},{"boilertext":"Betsy Rosasco, \"Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg's Ulysses Fleeing Polyphemus: A Painting by a Danish Student of Jacques-Louis David in 1812,\" Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 65 (2006): p. 22–47.","citation":"Betsy Rosasco, \"Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg's Ulysses Fleeing Polyphemus: A Painting by a Danish Student of Jacques-Louis David in 1812,\" Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 65 (2006): p. 22–47., p. 22, fig. 1","date":2006,"id":944,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/20442619"},{"boilertext":"Markus Bertsch, Hubertus Gassner, Neela Struck, et. al., Eckersberg: Faszination Wirklichkeit: das goldene Zeitalter der dänischen Malerei, (Petersberg: Michael Imhof Verlag; Hamburg: Hamburger Kunsthalle, 2016).","citation":"Markus Bertsch, Hubertus Gassner, Neela Struck, et. al., Eckersberg: Faszination Wirklichkeit: das goldene Zeitalter der dänischen Malerei, (Petersberg: Michael Imhof Verlag; Hamburg: Hamburger Kunsthalle, 2016).","date":2016,"id":6714,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/944010003"},{"boilertext":"A beautiful lie: C.W. Eckersberg's perfect miniature, exhibition 8 october 2015 - 24 january 2016, (Kopenhagen: National Gallery of Denmark, 2015).","citation":"A beautiful lie: C.W. Eckersberg's perfect miniature, exhibition 8 october 2015 - 24 january 2016, (Kopenhagen: National Gallery of Denmark, 2015).","date":2015,"id":6715,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/932057200"},{"boilertext":"[Auktionskatalog, ingen proveniens], (København: Winkel & Magnussen, 1930).","citation":"[Auktionskatalog, ingen proveniens], (København: Winkel & Magnussen, 1930).","date":1930,"id":6716,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/473654332"},{"boilertext":"Danske og udenlandske malerier, (Copenhagen: Bruun Rasmussen, 2001).","citation":"Danske og udenlandske malerier, (Copenhagen: Bruun Rasmussen, 2001)., lot 1069","date":2001,"id":6717,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/171366936"},{"boilertext":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007)","citation":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 200 (illus.)","date":2007,"id":474,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/191864564"}],"nowebuse":"False","periods":[],"department":"European Painting and Sculpture ","attribute_groups":[{"id":2199321,"term":"European Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"},{"id":2199338,"term":"Nazi-era gaps","termtype":"Provenance & Cultural Heritage"}],"daterange":"A.D. 1800-1850","dateend":1812,"depicted":[],"titles":[{"title":"Ulysses Fleeing the Cave of Polyphemus","titletype":"Primary Title","displayorder":1}],"hasimage":"true","creditlinerepro":"","objectnumber":"2002-348","inscribed":null,"texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Handbook Entry","textentryhtml":"\r\nEckersberg spent 1811 to 1812 in the studio of David, practicing life drawing and history painting. One of a series of subjects from the Odyssey, this is perhaps the most compelling. The giant Polyphe­mus in his cave looms over a sheep, searching for Ulysses and his companions, who blinded the one-eyed monster. The men have escaped beneath the bellies of the flock; Ulysses, at the end, prepares to join his companions. The Mediterranean light is dazzling. We viewers remain imprisoned in the tenebrous foreground as Ulysses slips away. Eckersberg’s study of the eloquent contours of Greek vase painting is put to good use here.

\r\nAlthough the Danish artist was in Paris to learn from David, the most revered teacher in Europe at the time, his ambivalence can be read in some of the anti-classical tendencies seen here. The disjunction of the large-scale giant Polyphemus and the small Ulysses is true to the story, but disturbing, while the extremes of dark and light add to the monster’s menace. Eckersberg was the citizen of a French ally in the Napoleonic Wars, but as a protégé of the king of Denmark, who underwrote his studies in France and later travels to Italy, and with whose heir he carried on a friendly correspondence, he may well have had mixed feelings about David, a regicide who had cast his vote for the death of Louis XVI. Eckersberg’s letters show he found Paris and its conventions an uncomfortable fit. Although David considered Eckersberg talented and encouraged his studies, this raw and frank history painting expresses a sensibility different from that of his more stylish French students.

","remarks":null},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"

Anonymous sale, Winkel and Magnussen, Copenhagen, May 10, 1927, lot 19.

\n

Anonymous sale, Winkel and Magnussen, May 1930.

\n

Chresten Jensen sale, Bruun Rasmussen Kunstauktioner, Copenhagen, March 5–8, 2001, lot 1069;

\n

Jean-François Heim, Paris;

2002 purchase by Princeton University Art Museum.

","remarks":"not vetted"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Gallery Label","textentryhtml":"

\n\tIn this scene from the ancient Greek epic poem The Odyssey, the one-eyed giant Polyphemus—recently blinded by the hero Ulysses—occupies the foreground as Ulysses slips out of the giant’s cave into the daylight. Eckersberg made this painting in Paris, where he trained with the renowned artist Jacques-Louis David. His studies included lessons in life-drawing and history painting, which encompassed the depiction of subjects from ancient literature such as this one. Although a student work, it reveals Eckersberg’s acute observation of nature and his nuanced treatment of light and perspective.\n

","remarks":"EUR1_02-05_WLA-Day 1 Cataloguing "}],"datebegin":1812,"sortnumber":"2002 348","published_date":"2026-02-11 11:08:12.831328","objectid":41415,"dimensions":"80 × 63.5 cm (31 1/2 × 25 in.)\r\nframe: 96.5 × 79.4 × 8.6 cm (38 × 31 1/4 × 3 3/8 in.)","on_view":true}