Budtz Müller

Bertel Christian Budtz Müller (26 December 1837 - 30 December 1884) was a Danish photographer. He operated the photographic studio Budtz Müller & Co. at Bredgade 21 in Copenhagen and was appointed as court photographer in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Early life and education
Budtz Müller was born in Mariager, the son of teacher Rasmus Müller (1787-1854) and Arnolde Cathrine Grundtvig (1803-1888). He apprenticed as a pharmacist in Aalborg and then moved to Copenhagen where he graduated in pharmacy (cand.pharm.) in 1858, He worked for a year in Randers and was then employed by Alfred Benzon at the Swan Pharmacy in Copenhagen.
Career
Müller and Benzon opened a shop with photography equipment at Bredgade 21. It was converted into a photographic institute with student programmes in 1863. Benzon left the company in 1866. Müller was instead joined by the art historian Philip Weilbach until 1871 and from then on owned Budtz Müller & Co. alone.
The firm offered a wide selection of high quality Stereoscopies and photographs in large and small formats from Copenhagen. Other images were of prominent cultural figures such as Grundtvig, Hans Christian Andersen, actors in costumes, works by Bertel Thorvaldsen and 33 stereoscopies from Greenland recorded in 1866. Other series included Danish monuments (1865-) with text by Weilbach, Knippelsbro (1869), paintings in the Royal Danish Painting Collection at Christiansborg Palace (1869), drawings by Danish and foreign artists (1872), paintings by Danish, Norwegian and Swedish artists (1872), drawings and paintings by Holger Roed (1874), weapons in the (1877), and Christiansborg Palace (1884). A folder with 35 images by Haldor Topsøe from Fyllas expedition to Greenland was also published in 1877.<ref name=HoP/>
Budtz Müller collaborated with Jean Christian Ferslew in introducing photolithography tp the Danish market and created the first photolithographic maps for Generalstaben as well as a number of reproductions of manuscripts for the Arnamagnæan Institute. Müller and Ferslew published Gotfred of Ghemen's print from 1495 of Den danske rimkrønike in 1873.
Budtz Müller was in 1869 appointed as Swedish and Norwegian court photographer and in 1870 also as Danish court photographer. He wrote a number of articles about the history of photography in Den fotografiske Forenings Tidende in 1865.<ref name=DBL/>
Personal life
Müller married Maren Christine Petersen (1840-1878), a foster daughter of dyer Hans Nikolaj Edinger Grundtvig (1807-1887) and Anna Marie Petersen (1804-1865), on 4 December 1863 in the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen.<ref name=DBL/>

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