Horses in Denmark

Horses as subjects especially in Danish books - from the collections in the library.

The Danish horse was once an elegant horse for dressage and parade at the Courts of Europe and popular as a horse for cavalry and carriage. The horse was bred in the Royal Stud founded by Frederik II 1562 and developed in the grand style by Christian IV og later kings. The stud became one of the most famous in Europe giving lustre to the Danish horse breeding for over 200 years. First the stud was situated in the abolished Convent of Esrum, but later it was moved to the new Frederiksborg Castle and after this the horse was called the Frederiksborg horse.

C.D. Gebauer (1777-1831) was a painter of landscapes and animals with horses as his preferred subject depicted in an idealized Romantic way. 

Det kongelige danske Stutteri Frederiksborg was founded as a large-scale book with coloured lithographs  "drawn from nature" and published by the end of the Stud - 1822-27. Gebauers plan was to illustrate the different types in the fields in 12 parts, but the work remained a torso with only 4 parts being published.