Skagen Painters
Encyclopedia
Skagen
Skagen is a projection of land and a town, with a population of 8,515 , in Region Nordjylland on the northernmost tip of Vendsyssel-Thy, a part of the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark...
, the northernmost part of Denmark
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...
, from the late 1870s until the turn of the century. Skagen was a summer destination whose scenery and quality of light attracted northern artists to paint en plein air
En plein air
En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air", and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors.Artists have long painted outdoors, but in the mid-19th century working in natural light became particularly important to the Barbizon school and Impressionism...
following the French Impressionists—though members of the Skagen collective were also influenced by realist
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
movements such as the Barbizon school
Barbizon school
The Barbizon school of painters were part of a movement towards realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870...
. They broke away from the rather rigid traditions of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts
Royal Swedish Academy of Arts
The Royal Swedish Academy of Arts or Kungl. Akademien för de fria konsterna, founded in 1773 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden...
, espousing the latest trends they had learnt in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Skagen, in the very north of Jutland
Jutland
Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...
, was the largest fishing community in Denmark, with more than half of its population so engaged. Among the locals, fishermen were by far the most common subject for the Skagen painters. Skagen's long beaches were exploited in the group's landscapes; Peder Severin Krøyer
Peder Severin Krøyer
Peder Severin Krøyer , known as P.S. Krøyer, was a Norwegian-Danish painter. He is one of the best known and beloved, and undeniably the most colorful of the Skagen Painters, a community of Danish and Nordic artists who lived, gathered or worked in Skagen, Denmark, especially during the final...
, one of the best-known of the Skagen painters, was inspired by the light of the evening "Blue Hour", which made the water and sky seem to optically merge. This is captured in one of his most famous paintings, Summer Evening at Skagen Beach – The Artist and his Wife.
Members of the group
The group included Swedish painters Oscar BjörckOscar Björck
Oscar Gustaf Björck was a Swedish painter and a professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts.Born in Stockholm, from 1877 to 1882, Björck was a student of Edvard Perséus at the Academy where his paintings included Loke fängslas af asarne , Gustaf Vasa inför kung Hans and Den förlorade sonens...
and Johan Krouthén
Johan Krouthén
Johan Krouthén was a Swedish artist. He broke away from the traditions of the Swedish Academy, turning to Realism and Idealism. Immediately after his studies, he spent a few months in Paris and in Denmark where he associated with the Skagen Painters...
, Norwegian painters Christian Krohg
Christian Krohg
Christian Krohg , was a Norwegian naturalist painter, illustrator, author and journalist.-Life and career:...
and Eilif Peterssen
Eilif Peterssen
Hjalmar Eilif Emanuel Peterssen was a Norwegian painter.-Background:Hjalmar Eilif Emanuel Peterssen was born in Christiania, now Oslo, Norway. He grew up in the neighborhood of Hegdehaugen in the district of Frogner.He attended the Johan Fredrik Eckersberg School of Painting in Oslo in 1869...
, Danish painters Karl Madsen
Karl Madsen
Carl Johan Wilhelm Madsen, commonly known as Karl Madsen, was a Danish painter and art historian who after close connections with the Skagen Painters joined the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where he was museum director from 1911–1925....
, Laurits Tuxen
Laurits Tuxen
Laurits Tuxen was a Danish painter and sculptor, sculptor, specialising in figure painting. He was also associated with the Skagen Painters...
, Marie Krøyer
Marie Triepcke Krøyer Alfvén
Marie Triepcke Krøyer Alfvén , commonly known as Marie Krøyer, was a famous Danish painter. She was born Maria Martha Mathilde Triepcke in Frederiksberg, Denmark to Wilhelm August Eduard Max and Minna Augusta Kindler Triepcke, who had immigrated to Denmark from Germany the previous year. Max...
, Carl Locher
Carl Locher
Carl Locher was a Danish realist painter who from an early age became a member of the Skagen group of painters.-Biography:...
, Viggo Johansen
Viggo Johansen
Viggo Johansen was a Danish painter and active member of the group of Skagen Painters who met every summer in the north of Jutland. He was one of Denmark's most prominent painters in the 1890s.-Career:...
, Thorvald Niss, Holger Drachmann
Holger Drachmann
Holger Henrik Herholdt Drachmann , was a Danish poet and dramatist. He is an outstanding figure of the Modern Break-Through....
and most notably, Anna
Anna Ancher
Anna Ancher was a Danish artist associated with the Skagen Painters, an artists' colony in the very north of Jutland.-Background:...
and Michael Ancher and Peder Severin Krøyer
Peder Severin Krøyer
Peder Severin Krøyer , known as P.S. Krøyer, was a Norwegian-Danish painter. He is one of the best known and beloved, and undeniably the most colorful of the Skagen Painters, a community of Danish and Nordic artists who lived, gathered or worked in Skagen, Denmark, especially during the final...
. The gatherings in Skagen were not restricted to painters. Danish writers Georg Brandes
Georg Brandes
Georg Morris Cohen Brandes was a Danish critic and scholar who had great influence on Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind the "Modern Breakthrough" of Scandinavian culture...
and Henrik Pontoppidan
Henrik Pontoppidan
Henrik Pontoppidan was a realist writer who shared with Karl Gjellerup the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1917 for "his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark." Pontoppidan's novels and short stories — informed with a desire for social progress but despairing, later in his...
and Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén
Hugo Alfvén
was a Swedish composer, conductor, violinist, and painter.- Violinist :Alfvén was born in Stockholm and studied at the Music Conservatory there from 1887 to 1891 with the violin as his main instrument, receiving lessons from Lars Zetterquist. He also took private composition lessons from Johan...
were also members of the group.
A number of other artists also joined the Skagen Painters for shorter periods. From Denmark they included Vilhelm Kyhn
Vilhelm Kyhn
Peter Vilhelm Carl Kyhn, was a Danish landscape painter who belonged to the generation of national romantic painters immediately after the Danish Golden Age and before the Modern Breakthrough...
, Einer Hein and Frederik Lange, from Norway Fritz Thaulow, Charles Lundh and Wilhelm Peters, from Sweden Wilhelm von Gegerfelt and Anna Palm de Rosa, from Germany Fritz Stoltenberg and Julius Runge, and from England Adrian Stokes
Adrian Scott Stokes
Charles Adrian Scott Stokes RA was an English landscape painter. Born in Southport, Lancashire, he became a cotton broker in Liverpool, where his artistic talent was noticed by John Herbert RA, who advised him to submit his drawings to the Royal Academy. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in...
and his Austrian-born wife, Marianne Stokes
Marianne Stokes
Marianne Stokes , born Marianne Preindlsberger in the Austrian province of Styria, was an Austrian painter. She settled in England after her marriage to Adrian Scott Stokes , the landscape painter, whom she had met in Pont-Aven. Marianne Stokes was considered one of the leading artists in Victorian...
. The Danish composer Carl Nielsen
Carl Nielsen
Carl August Nielsen , , widely recognised as Denmark's greatest composer, was also a conductor and a violinist. Brought up by poor but musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he demonstrated his musical abilities at an early age...
and his wife Anne Marie
Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen
Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen was a Danish sculptor. Her preferred themes were domestic animals and people, with an intense, naturalistic portrayal of movements and sentiments. She also depicted themes from Nordic mythology...
, a sculptor, also spent summers in Skagen and eventually bought a summerhouse there.
History
From 1871, Michael Ancher studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen together with Karl Madsen and Viggo Johansen. In 1874, he went to Skagen to paint the local fishermen and became a friend of the Brøndom family who had a shop with a bar which was soon extended to become Brøndoms Gastgiveri, a guest house. He was invited to their 15-year-old daughter Anna's confirmation and showed an immediate interest in her. The following year, he returned to Skagen together with Madsen and Johansen who had been strongly influenced by French impressionismImpressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
. In particular, Johansen began to paint open-air scenes combining impressionism with realism.
In 1876 and especially in 1877, several other artists came to spend the summer in Skagen, using the Brøndom's house as a residence and centre for their gatherings. Michael Ancher made Skagen his new home, became engaged to Anna Brøndom in 1878 and married her in 1880. Their home then became the centre of attraction for the artists, especially after King Christian IX
Christian IX of Denmark
Christian IX was King of Denmark from 16 November 1863 to 29 January 1906.Growing up as a prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a junior branch of the House of Oldenburg which had ruled Denmark since 1448, Christian was originally not in the immediate line of succession to the Danish...
bought Ancher's painting Will he round the point?.
Anna Ancher first took a serious interest in painting after the artists began to stay in the family's hotel, leaving their paintings to dry in their rooms when they left for the day. She studied them carefully and in 1875 attended Vilhelm Kyhn
Vilhelm Kyhn
Peter Vilhelm Carl Kyhn, was a Danish landscape painter who belonged to the generation of national romantic painters immediately after the Danish Golden Age and before the Modern Breakthrough...
's art school in Copenhagen. She was later influenced by Christian Krohg who taught her the art of painting people in their everyday lives and making full use of colour.
Christian Krohg first came to Skagen in the summer of 1878, encouraged by Georg Brandes
Georg Brandes
Georg Morris Cohen Brandes was a Danish critic and scholar who had great influence on Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind the "Modern Breakthrough" of Scandinavian culture...
whom he had met in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. He brought many of the latest international art trends with him, influencing the other members of the group. His encounters with the local population also exerted a strong influence on his own work.
In 1882, the Anchers travelled abroad. While they were in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, they met P.S. Krøyer
Peder Severin Krøyer
Peder Severin Krøyer , known as P.S. Krøyer, was a Norwegian-Danish painter. He is one of the best known and beloved, and undeniably the most colorful of the Skagen Painters, a community of Danish and Nordic artists who lived, gathered or worked in Skagen, Denmark, especially during the final...
who informed them he would also be going to Skagen that year, despite the fact that Ancher was apparently not too keen to have him therem. Krøyer, who had enjoyed close contacts with several impressionist artists in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, immediately became the central member and unofficial leader of the artists' colony. In 1883, he created the "Evening Academy" where the artists gathered to paint and discuss each other's work, often enjoying themselves with wine and champagne. In 1884, the German painter Fritz Stoltenberg took photographs of the artists celebrating in the Anchers' garden, just after the couple had moved into their new home. One of these photos in particular inspired Krøyer to paint Hip, Hip, Hurrah!
Hip, Hip, Hurrah!
Hip, Hip, Hurrah! is an oil-on-canvas painting from 1888 by Norwegian-Danish painter Peder Severin Krøyer...
which he did not complete for another four years.
In 1890, the railway to Skagen not only led to the expansion of the village but also brought in considerable numbers of tourists. It was largely responsible for breaking up the regular summer meetings of the artists' colony as they could no longer find suitable accommodation and venues for their meetings. However, some of them purchased homes in Skagen: P.S. Krøyer in 1894, Laurits Tuxen in 1901, Holger Drachmann in 1903. Anna and Michael Ancher, Krøyer and Tuxen continued to paint in Skagen until well into the 20th century and were occasionally joined by their earlier friends.
Family relationships
The Skagen painters quickly began to form a close-knit community as relationships grew between the artists and the young women from the area. In 1880, Michael Ancher married Anna Brøndum from the guest house, Viggo Johansen married Martha Møller, Anna's cousin, and Karl Madsen married Helene Christensen, a schoolteacher. The house the Anchers moved into in 1884 became a focus for the artists' colony, especially as the couple lived there all the year round. When their daughter Helga (the little girl in Hip, hip, hurrah!) died in 1964, she left the house to a foundation which soon turned it into Skagen's Museum, dedicated to the works of the Skagen painters.The Johansens acquired a large family between 1881 and 1886: Ellen Henriette (daughter of Henriette, Martha's sister, who died during childbirth), Lars, Fritz, Gerda and Bodil. They can be seen dancing around the Christmas tree in Johansen's painting Merry Christmas.
Another key figure in Skagen, P.S. Krøyer, married Marie Triepcke
Marie Triepcke Krøyer Alfvén
Marie Triepcke Krøyer Alfvén , commonly known as Marie Krøyer, was a famous Danish painter. She was born Maria Martha Mathilde Triepcke in Frederiksberg, Denmark to Wilhelm August Eduard Max and Minna Augusta Kindler Triepcke, who had immigrated to Denmark from Germany the previous year. Max...
after falling in love with her in Paris in 1888. The daughter of a prosperous German loomery engineer, she was said to be the most beautiful women in Denmark. However, as the years went by, Krøyer's health began to deteriorate and Marie was increasingly unhappy with their marriage. The marriage finally ended in a divorce in 1905 when Marie became pregnant after an affair with Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén
Hugo Alfvén
was a Swedish composer, conductor, violinist, and painter.- Violinist :Alfvén was born in Stockholm and studied at the Music Conservatory there from 1887 to 1891 with the violin as his main instrument, receiving lessons from Lars Zetterquist. He also took private composition lessons from Johan...
whom she then married. Krøyer died in Skagen four years later, apparently as a result of mental illness.
In 1901, after the death of his first wife Ursule, Laurits Tuxen married Frederikke Treschow, a Norwegian, and shortly afterwards purchased Madam Bendsen's house in Skagen where first Viggo and Martha Johansen and later Marie og P. S. Krøyer had stayed in the 1880s. He converted it into a stately summer residence.
Michael Ancher and Laurits Tuxen died in 1927, Anna Ancher and Viggo Johansen in 1935.
Skagen's Museum
Skagen's Museum was founded in the dining room at Brøndum’s Hotel during October 1908. Phamacist, Victor Christian Klæbel, the local pharmacist, Degn Brøndum, proprietor of Brøndum's Hotel and Anna Ancher's brother, and artists Michael Ancher, P.S. Krøyer and Laurits TuxenLaurits Tuxen
Laurits Tuxen was a Danish painter and sculptor, sculptor, specialising in figure painting. He was also associated with the Skagen Painters...
, were elected to form the first board of governors. After P.S. Krøyer’s death in 1909, his house in Skagen Plantation was used as a museum. In 1919, Degn Brøndum donated the old hotel’s garden to Skagens Museum. Work started in 1926 and was completed in September 1928 when the new museum was officially opened.
In 1982, the exhibition rooms were extended with an annex drafted by the Royal Surveyor, architect Jacob Blegvad. Blegvad also designed the later extension to the museum that was inaugurated in 1989. In 1997, the museum administration moved into the Technical School. Today Skagen's Museum has more than 1,800 works of art at its disposal.
Swedish film
The Skagen artists were the subject of the 1987 film Hip Hip Hurra!Hip hip hurra! (film)
Hip hip hurra! is a 1987 Danish / Norwegian / Swedish film directed by Kjell Grede. The film is named after the painting with the same name.The film presents the general background of the Skagen Painters and everything that attracted them to gather in Skagen but it is P.S. Krøyer who is the centre...
by Swedish director Kjell Grede
Kjell Grede
Kjell Grede is a Swedish film director. He directed nine films between 1967 and 2003. He was married to actress Bibi Andersson from 1960 to 1973. His film Harry Munter was entered into the 1970 Cannes Film Festival. In 1991, his film Good Evening, Mr...
, after the painting with the same name by Krøyer.
The film presents the general background of the Skagen Painters and everything that attracted them to gather in Skagen but it is P.S. Krøyer (Søren Krøyer played by Stellan Skarsgård
Stellan Skarsgård
Stellan John Skarsgård is a Swedish actor, known internationally for his film roles in Angels & Demons, Breaking the Waves, The Hunt for Red October, Ronin, Good Will Hunting, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist,...
in the film) who is the centre of attraction. It shows how he inspires the other painters to create ever better paintings while his wife Marie is considered to be the most beautiful woman in Denmark. However, Krøyer realises that it is only a matter of time before the mental illness suffered by his mother finally affects him too. The film received several awards including the Grand Special Jury Prize
Special Jury Prize (Venice Film Festival)
The Special Jury Prize is an award given at the Venice Film Festival. It is awarded to one or two films per year and is considered less prestigious than the main award, the Golden Lion.-Awards:*1951 A Streetcar Named Desire by Elia Kazan...
and a Golden Osella
Golden Osella
The Golden Osella is the name of several awards given at the Venice Film Festival. They are awarded irregularly and in various categories such as directing, screenwriting, cinematography and 'technical contributions'.-Best Director:...
for Best Cinematography at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
.
When Kjell Grede was asked why he as a Swede wanted to make a film about Danish artists, he explained: "The first step, when I look back, was that I was fascinated by the thought of that remote peninsula jutting out into the sea and bathed in sunshine, and of the people gathering there. The next step comes when you consider that group of people because you realise their feelings are so important to all of us — friendship, love and beauty, all that is positive, all that is best. The third step is that when you look at them more closely, you realise that those three qualities are under threat. They are theatened with obliteration, just like the peninsula itself... Everything which means so much to us is constantly threatened by Destiny with a capital D, that same destiny we believe psychotherapists can help us overcome but which in fact tears them apart too. You can see it in the group of artists. Beauty in the paintings of the Skagen artists, it was not something intended just for the enjoyment of the upper classes. It had an important role, it was a call against a hard life, against poverty and sickness and children who died. Ours is a life of luxury when we compare our times with theirs. Beauty was something spiritual, a religious experience, a question of life and death."
Gallery of paintings
The gallery below presents a number of paintings by the Skagen artists, roughly in chronological order.Further reading
- Lise Svanholm, "Northern light: the Skagen painters", Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2004, 274 pp, ISBN 8702028174