Aagaard left his small town for Denmark’s capital to study drawing at the Danish Royal Academy; Copenhagen was the center of a spectacular resurgence of the arts. By the middle of the 19th century such great figures as Hans Christian Andersen, the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, and the physicist H. C. Ørsted had come out of Copenhagen. The art of the first half of the 19th century in Copenhagen was perhaps the greatest achievement of Denmark’s Golden Age.

Lodge on Lake Como	Pergola in Amalfi

The Royal Collections, what was later to become the National Collection after the peaceful transition to a constitutional monarchy, actively supported these new artists, buying these ‘modern’ pictures the moment they were exhibited. In the face of such disasters as the overwhelming defeat of their famed navy by the British in 1801, the English bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807 that destroyed hundreds of buildings in the small city and damaged over a thousand, and the declaration of national bankruptcy in 1813 and subsequent loss of Norway, Danish culture flourished with a willful energy and a unique character. Aagaard began his career towards the end of this great period in Denmark but was instructed by the country’s great artists while at the Academy.

Deer in a Forest	Deer Park

In addition to studying drawing, Aagaard assisted his older brother, a glass engraver at his professional studio. Aagaard next apprenticed in the studio of Hilker, a painter. Aagaard collaborated with Hilker on work at the University and other public monuments. He was then briefly associated with the painter Heinr. It was his final teacher though, the landscape painter Peter Kristian Skoovgaard, that was to be the most influential. In 1857 Aagaard exhibited for the first time to great success. He continued to exhibit and trips to Switzerland and Italy helped to perfect his style. 

View to the Amalfi Coast	The Rose Garden

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