pre WW I
20th Century European Art
20th Century Overview

Danish Art
Before World War I

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Michael Ancher

born: Frigaard, Denmark (now Norway); 9 June 1849
died: Skagen; Denmark; 19 September 1927

Young Girl Knitting
1880

Girl with Sunflowers
1893

Sea Promenade
1896

Fishermen Returning Home
1899

Two Fishermen

Four Fishermen

A. Ancher and M. Krøyer

Picking Flowers in a Field North of Skagen
1887

Lunch in the Garden
1905

Michael Ancher was 25 years old in July 1874 when he came to Skagen, which is the northernmost part of Denmark. He was from the southmost part of the country. He could not get into the National Art Academy, because he was not born in the right place or time. At the time he came to Skagen, the village was already known for the properties of its light. But it was Michael Ancher that invited most of the other artist to come on holiday in the village. In Skagen he invited artist like Oscar Bjørck, Viggo Johansen, P.S. Krøyer, Christian Krohg... I feel it was because his work for the most time was about the fishermen and their family that he got to be an artist.

He worked much with the poor people in Skagen, almost every painting he made, was a story from these people's daily lives. Ancher did not paint what I call happy pictures, but he had a understanding for the color in Skagen, and in almost every painting he used this light to give his pictures that feeling of the land. Look at the painting Lunch in the Garden, it was a party, but the people are not happy, they are just there, but if you look at the trees in the background Ancher used the light and shadow in an elegant way.

No other painter has used his talent on the fishermen and their lives like Ancher did.

In 1880 he married Anna, see her short biography below. Today there is a museum in his name in Skagen and the local Art Museum has a extensive collection of his art.

Christian Krohg

born: Oslo, Denmark (now Norway); 13 August 1852
died: Oslo, Norway; 25 October 1925

Signal of Distress

Laurits Tuxen

born: Copenhagen, Denmark; 9 December 1853
died: Copenhagen, Denmark; 21 November 1927

First Wife
1890

From the Studio
1895

Artist's Mother
and Daughter
1902

Tuxen came to Skagen a couple af times in the 1870's, before becoming a much sought-for portrait painter in the courts of Europe. But after the death in 1899 of his first wife, the Belgian-born Ursula de Baisieux, and his second marriage in 1901 with Frederikke Treschow, he bought a house in Skagen. Here, in the "Tuxen Villa", he spent much of his time together with Krøyer and Michael and Anna Ancher. In this period as an artist he was mainly occupied by the subjects of family life, his wife and daughters, and of Skagen in the changing light of summertime. The "Tuxen Villa" is today a museum.

Ten more Tuxen pictures.

Peder Severin Krøyer

born: Stavanger, Denmark (now Norway); 23 July 1851
died: Skagen, Denmark; 21 November 1909

Hip Hip Hurrah
1888

Marie in the Garden
1889

Summer Eve
in Skagen
1892

Wine Harvest in Tyrol
1901

Holger Drachmann
in a Skagen Grove
1902

Self
1907

Osteria -- Ravello, Italy

Artist's Luncheon

Krøyer was born in the Norwegian part of Denmark but his family moved to Copenhagen when he was young. His father always said, that because he wasn’t good at leaning in school, that he hoped he could paint. And it was probably because of his father, that Krøyer started to paint. He had a natural talent. He went to the National Art Academy in Copenhagen and as a 22 year young man, he won 1st prize in the academy's annual contest.

But Krøyer did not want to stay in one place too long. In 1875 he made a trip abroad to Berlin, Switzerland and the Tyrol. Later he moved to Paris, where he lived for some years. June 19, 1882, he came to live in Skagen. That meant a new time for the village.

He was a gentleman, cosmopolitan with international contacts. He had lived in France, Italy and Spain. He had lived a life in beauty and with a lot of other people from all over the world. And the cosmopolitan behavior would follow him all the time in Skagen. Krøyer was the master of light and figure, but Skagen did never get to his heart, if it meant being with the locals. And that is where he was very different from all the other painters in Skagen. Krøyer is today sold at the big art auctions around the world.

Anna Ancher

born: Skagen, Denmark; 18 August 1859
died: Skagen, Denmark; 15 April 1935

Carving a Stick
1880

Sunshine in
the Blue Room
1881

Girl in the Kitchen
1883

Young Woman in
Front of a Mirror
1899

Anna's Living Room
1913

Wedding in Skagen
1914

Tulips
1919

Sunshine Room
1921

Evening Prayer

Two Girls Learning to Sew

Anna was born in Skagen. Her parents were not rich, but her father was a grocer and owned the Hotel Brøndum, that is today a fashionable hotel, but at that time just was a small inn and grocery.

Because of Anne and Michael Ancher the hotel is today a part of Skagen like the sea and the light. Anne was born in August 1859, at the same time as the world renowned author H. C. Andersen was on a holiday in the village.

The story tells that he came to the Hotel Brøndum to get dinner. He ordered fish, but Anna's mother who was preparing the dinner, did not have any fish. She ordered some, but because the boy had to go to the other side of village, this took some time. The author got mad and shouted at Anna's mother. When he got the fish, he later wrote about it in one of his stories, that it was a fish a king would call a magnificent dinner.

Because of Andersen's shouting, the mother had to go to bed, and a few hours later Anna was born. Anna was the first born of a total of five children. The village Skagen was not big. If you in 1959 walked from one end to the other it did not take more then 20 min. And Anna had never made a painting on the other side of the village from where she was born. As a child she did not move away from her mother's kitchen.

Anna as an artist is very important. At that time it was not normally for a women to paint, and in Anna there was a very big artist, that had a feeling for the art and for the people that she painted, that made her to be a big artist. In my mind she was much more important, as a painter, than her husband.