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Bendz, Wilhelm (Ferdinand)
(b Odense, 20 March 1804; d Vicenza, 14 Nov 1832). Danish painter. He studied (1820–26) at the Kunstakademi in Copenhagen, under C. W. Eckersberg and others. His earliest paintings reveal remarkable skill in the emulation of models: the clarity and detail in the View of Nyhavn (early 1820s; Copenhagen, Hirschsprungske Saml.) is very much in the objective, closely observant spirit of Eckersberg; and the delicate use of light and colour in the Self-portrait of 1821 (Copenhagen, Hirschsprungske Saml.) recalls the work of Jens Juel. Bendz painted portraits to earn a living while still at the Academy, and some of his more extreme and disturbing early works are themselves adaptations of the portrait genre. In the Raffenberg Family (1823; Copenhagen, Kstforen.) the hermetic idyll of the traditional family portrait is shattered by a picture within a picture: at the centre of the composition is the portrait of the dead husband and father. Bendz creates an image of alarming tension, exaggerated by the enamelled perfection of the painting’s finish.
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