Joakim Skovgaard

[2] Born in Copenhagen, from an early age he was trained in drawing and painting by his father P.C.

[3] He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1871 to 1876 and attended Léon Bonnat's school in Paris in the winter of 1880-81 where he was influenced by the trend towards Realism.

In the 1880s, he travelled to Italy and to Greece, where he was accompanied by Kristian Zahrtmann, developing an interest in Symbolism.

From 1884, he experimented with decorating ceramics as can be seen in his dish Eva med slangen (Eve with the Snake).

Often depicting animals, his designs later led to sculptures completed together with Bindesbøll, including Dragespringvandet (1888-1923) and Bjørnespringvandet (1888-1901) at Copenhagen City Hall.