The View from the Temple of Athena on the Acropolis

On the back of Rørbye’s painting there is an advertisement for the manufacturer and trader of the millboard Rørbye used to paint The View from the Temple of Athena on the Acropolis. The business was owned by the English paint dealer, frame maker, and restorer Robert Davy (c. 1771-1843), who sold art supplies from his shop on Newman Street in London. Rørbye never visited London, but could have purchased the millboard on his travels in southern Europe then brought it back to Denmark, where he made the painting in 1844. The advertisement claims Davy to be the sole manufacturer of ‘genuine Flemish grounds’ on wooden panels and millboards, at the same time as promoting a new sketching block with 30 pages for sketching in oil. In the 1800s artists usually bought their art supplies from grocers and chemists, then later from specialised ‘artists’ colourmen’ like Robert Davy.