Asmus Jakob Carstens (1754–1798)

• Was a Danish-German painter.

• He was born in Sanct Jürgen near Schleswig.

• At the time this was part of Denmark–Norway.

• He went to Copenhagen, where he studied at the academy and supported himself for seven years by drawing portraits in red chalk.

• In 1783 he went to Italy.

• Then he went to Lübeck, where he lived five years painting portraits.

• He was then introduced by the poet Overbeck to a wealthy patron, by whose aid he went to Berlin.

• He was then introduced by the poet Overbeck to a wealthy patron, by whose aid he went to Berlin.

• Two years' labour in Berlin and a travelling pension enabled him in 1792 to go to Rome, and study the works of Michelangelo and Raphael.

• At the end of this time he made a strongly worded attack on the Prussian academy and was dismissed.

• He was based in Rome for the brief remainder of his life, where he developed his final style.

• Bertel Thorvaldsen and Joseph Anton Koch both studied and worked with him in Rome, and copied many of his works.

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