Dameportræt

Jens Juel (12 May 1745 – 27 December 1802) was a Danish painter, primarily known for his many portraits, of which the largest collection is on display at Frederiksborg Castle. He is regarded as the leading Danish portrait painter of the 18th century.

Jens Juel was born on 12 May 1745, in the house of his mother's brother Johan Jørgensen, who was a school teacher in Balslev on the island of Funen. Jens Juel was the son of Vilhelmine Elisabeth Juel (January 1725 – March 1799), who served at Wedellsborg, and Jørgen Jørgensen (1724 – 4 June 1796), who was a schoolmaster in Gamborg, not far from Balslev, and he grew up in Gamborg.

Juel showed an interest in painting from an early age, and his parents sent him to be an apprentice of painter Johann Michael Gehrman in Hamburg, where he worked hard for five or six years and improved so much that he acquired a reputation as a painter of portraits, landscapes, etc. During the time of his studies, he could live off painting landscapes, portraits and genre pictures. At just over twenty years old, he moved to Copenhagen to attend the Royal Danish Academy of Art.