Carl Edvard Sonne

Carl Edvard Sonne (1 December 1804 – 3 January 1878) was a Danish printmaker. His work consisted exclusively of reproductions of works by other artists, especially genre paintings, which reached a large audience through Kunstforeningen. He was the brother of painter Jørgen Sonne.

Life Early life and education

Sonne was born on 1 December 1804 in Birkerød, the son of printmaker Jeppe Jørgen Sonne (1771–1833) and Else Cathrine Zimmer (1771–1851). He trained as a printmaker under his father and at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1819–28. He was also trained in drawing privately under J. L. Lund.

In 1826 and 1828 he published 18 reproductions of works by mostly contemporary artists such as Herman Wilhelm Bissen, Ditlev Blunck, Albert Küchler, Martinus Rørbye and others. He is seen in a boat on his brother Jørgen Sonne's monumental frieze of Bertel Thorvaldsen's homecoming on the façade of Thorvaldsens Museum in spite of the fact that he still lived in Italy when Thorvaldsen returned to Copenhagen in 1843. The sculptor Herman Wilhelm Bissen created a portrait bust of him in 1960 (Danish National Gallery.