A Young Artist (Ditlev Blunck) Examining a Sketch in a Mirror

The painting shows young Ditlev Blunck taking a break to examine a sketch for a portrait of George Valtin Sonne painting his brother, engraver Carl Edvard Sonne,[2] by holding it up in front of a mirror to see if the composition works.

The painting was executed in 1826 at time when Wilhelm Bendz was preoccupied by artists' new role; no longer craftsmen but instead considered intellectuals, artists in the modern sense of the word. During the 1820s he painted a series of portraits of artists at work. Here the model is Bendz's fellow student, Ditlev Blunck, in the process of painting a portrait of the painter Jørgen Sonne.

Ditlev Blunck, A bataillemaler, Jørgen Sonne (1801-90) in his study from 1824-1827, NationalStatens Museum for Kunst

Ditlev Blunck, Portrait of the engraver Carl Edvard Sonne, ca. 1826 Statens Museum for Kunst

The painting shows a time when painters took themselves seriously as working artists. The image of Blunck standing in a packed room surrounded by his tools, paintbox, palette and easel, skull and sketchpad, signals that his work is serious, and requires thorough study before execution.

• 
  A sculptor (Christen Christensen) working from live models in his studio, 1827, National Gallery of Denmark
• 
  Portrait of the painter Niels Peter Holbech, ca. 1830 Fuglsang Art Museum

• 
  Portrait of architect Gottlieb Bindesbøll, 1837 Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
• 
  Marine painter Anton Melbye, 1852, the Hirschsprung Collection

• Klaus P. Mortensen, Spejlinger - litteratur og refleksion, 2000, ISBN 87-90326-28-8

• Wilhelm Bendz: En ung kunstner (Ditlev Blunck) betragter en skitse i et spejl - Statens Museum for Kunst
• Skabelse og spejl - Kultur | www.b.dk
• Guldalderforskningens paradigmer – eksemplificeret på et maleri af Wilhelm Bendz - Arkivet, Thorvaldsens Museum