son of house painter and carpenter
apprentice to painter Jes Jessen (1797-1800); apprentice to Johan Jacob Jessen (1803); studied at Copenhagen Academy (Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi) with Nicolai Abilgaard (1803-09); with Jacques-Louis David (1811-13, Paris)
1809 –awarded great gold medal and stipend for travel to Rome by the Academy
1813 – befriends Bertil Thorvaldsen in Rome
1817 – member of Copenhagen Academy
1818 –professor at Copenhagen Academy
-influenced Christen Købke, Constantin Hansen, Vilhelm Marstrand and Martinus Rørbye
View over the Pont Royal from the Quai Voltaire, 1812 (National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen)
Bertil Thorvaldsen, 1814 (Royal Danish Academy, Copenhagen)
The Nathanson Family, 1818 (National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen)
Long Bridge in Copenhagen with Running Figure, 1836 (National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen)
Berman, Patricia G. In Another Light: Danish Painting in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Vendome Press, 2007
Conisbee, Philip. Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 1783-1853. Exhibition catalogue. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2003