Anton Laurids Johannes Dorph, usually known as Anton Dorph (15 February 1831, Horsens

Horsens

Horsens is a Danish city in east Jutland. It is the site of the council of Horsens municipality. The city's population is 53,807 and the Horsens municipality's population is 82,835 ....

 - 12 January 1914, Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

) was a Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 painter who is remembered for his altarpieces and his paintings of fishermen.

Biography

Dorph entered the Danish Academy in 1845 where he studied under Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg was a Danish painter. He was born in Blåkrog in the Duchy of Schleswig , to Henrik Vilhelm Eckersberg, painter and carpenter, and Ingeborg Nielsdatter...

. Later he received lessons from Wilhelm Marstrand

Wilhelm Marstrand

Nicolai Wilhelm Nikolaj Marstrand , painter and illustrator, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to Nicolai Jacob Marstrand, instrument maker and inventor, and Petra Othilia Smith...

 (1849-50). After winning the Academy's silver medal, he began to exhibit portraits and genre paintings. With his portrait of the actor C.N. Rosenkilde (1856) which was displayed in the foyer of the Royal Danish Theatre

Royal Danish Theatre

The Royal Danish Theatre is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first serving as the theatre of the king, and then as the theatre of the...

 he became increasingly well known. His full-figured portrait of the sulptor Evens brought him the Neuhausen Prize in 1857. The same year he began painting a series of works representing the fishermen of Zealand. He then turned to large religious works for altarpieces. Thanks to a stipend from the Academy, he travelled to Italy (1859-61) where he made several genre paintings including Fiskere i Sorrent, Sommeraften ved Solnedgang which was exhibited in 1860.

Even if he did not gain the same level of fame as Carl Heinrich Bloch

Carl Heinrich Bloch

Carl Heinrich Bloch was a Danish painter.He was born in Copenhagen and studied with Wilhelm Marstrand at the Royal Danish Academy of Art there. Bloch's parents wanted their son to enter a respectable profession - an officer in the Navy. This, however, was not what Carl wanted...

, Dorph became quite popular, especially for his paintings of fishermen of which reproductions hung in a considerable number of Danish homes. His many altarpieces in the second half of the 19th century are also of note.

Selected works

• En bondepige (1854)
• C.N. Rosenkilde (1855)
• Småpiger som leger på vej hjem fra skole (1863)
• Kristian Mantzius (1865)
• Ung fiskerkone, der venter sin mands hjemkomst fra søen (1867)
• Skattens mønt (1868)
• Julie Sødring (1870)
• Kristus velsigner disciplene (1873)
• Hovedet af en fisker (1879)
• Hornfiskefangst med drivvod, tidlig morgen (1880)
• Varm diset sommerdag ved stranden (1888)
• Kristus og synderinden (1882)
• Korsfæstelsen (1885)