Christen Kobke (1819-1848) was arguably the greatest painter of Denmark's 'Golden Age', the period of the nation's supreme artistic achievement. He had the remarkable ability to invest the simplest corner of town or countryside with charm and delicacy, without resorting to the artificial rhetoric of academic traditions. He enowed ordinary people and places, and simple motifs, with a universal significance. This book gives an overview of Kobke's achievement within its cultural context, and also highlights the most innovative aspects of his work, including outdoor sketching, his fascination with painterly immediacy in the treatment of light and atmosphere, his exquisite originality and his experimental outlook. This book accompanies an exhibition at the National Gallery, London, from 17 March to 13 June 2010. It then travels to the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, from 5 July to 3 October 2010.