Skagen Painters
He married Anna Brøndum, the only member of the group from Skagen, who became a pioneering female artist at a time when women were not permitted to study at Denmark's Royal Academy.
Today the Skagens Museum, founded in the dining room at Brøndum's Hotel in October 1908, hosts many of their works of art, some 1,800 pieces in total.
[4] Among those who were increasingly frustrated by this approach were Michael Ancher, Karl Madsen and Viggo Johansen who in the early 1870s were studying at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen.
[12] 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.
[14] The Skagen painters quickly began to form a close-knit community as relationships grew between the artists and the young women from the area.
[18] 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 and P.S.
There were also painters from the rest of Scandinavia including Oscar Björck and Johan Krouthén from Sweden and Christian Krohg and Eilif Peterssen from Norway.
The Danish writers Georg Brandes, Holger Drachmann and Henrik Pontoppidan and the Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén were also members of the group.
From Denmark they included Vilhelm Kyhn, Einar Hein and Frederik Lange, from Norway Frits 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 and his Austrian-born wife, Marianne Stokes.
The Danish composer Carl Nielsen and his wife Anne Marie, a sculptor, also spent summers in Skagen and eventually bought a summerhouse there.
[25] As a result of her portraits of family and friends as well as her skills as a colourist, she is considered to be one of Denmark's finest artists although all her talents were not fully appreciated until after her death.
Commenting on her Blind Woman (1882) in which the face is illuminated in an otherwise dark portrait, Madsen pointed out that she was the first Danish artist to depict a sunbeam.
Several other works by Ancher depict Skagen's heroic fishermen and their dramatic experiences at sea, combining Realism and with classical composition.
[30] Born in Stavanger, Norway, but brought up in Copenhagen, Peder Severin Krøyer (1851–1909) came to Skagen in 1882 and returned almost every summer, finally settling there after marrying Marie Triepcke in 1889.
[31] He had already gained a reputation for his paintings of the fishermen in Hornbæk on the north coast of Zealand and had been influenced by the Impressionist movement in his travels to France.
In Skagen, he became one of the central and most enthusiastic members of the group of painters, creating masterpieces emphasizing the special effects of the local light in his beach scenes while painting several memorable works recording the lively gatherings of the artists.
[32] Key works include Summer Evening on Skagen's Southern Beach (1893), In the Grocer's Store When There is No Fishing (1892), and Midsummer Eve Bonfire on Skagen Beach (1906) which shows many members of the community including Krøyer's daughter Vibeke, mayor Otto Schwartz and his wife Alba Schwartz, Michael Ancher, Degn Brøndum, Anna Ancher, Holger Drachmann and his third wife Soffi, Hugo Alfvén and Marie Krøyer.
[35] The work displays stronger contrasts than his earlier paintings, depicting the red-bearded Christian looking out towards the light at the foot of his bed where the flaming gold and white sunlight streams down onto the little blue cupboard on the wall.
[36] Among the works he painted in Skagen are Kitchen Interior (1884) which depicts his wife Martha arranging flowers, and the much brighter Dividing the Catch (1885) showing four fishermen who have pulled their boat up onto the beach while one of their wives hopes there will be something for the evening meal.
[40] Especially interested in marine painting, Locher adopted a realist impressionistic approach, influenced by the time he spent with Léon Bonnat in Paris during the 1870s.
[41] A stickler for perfection, especially in his drawings, his works cover the transition from sailing ships to steamships and from the original Skagen to the evolving tourist destination.
[48] Tuxen's most famous paintings are however his portraits of European royal personalities, including Christian IX of Denmark, Queen Victoria and Czar Nicholas II.
[50] His experience of French art can be seen in several of his later Skagen paintings, including Tired (1885) and Braiding Her Hair (1888) in which the mother and child unusually have their backs facing the observer.
[52] His lighter palette with bold brushstrokes and contrasting tones of blue, red and green give the painting a deeper texture.
[54][55] Encouraged by the Modern Breakthrough movement led by Georg Brandes, the early painters were attracted by Skagen's village community, its seascapes and culture, all far removed from the effects of industrialization on city life.
[56][57] The artists were especially attracted by the opportunities for painting en plein air, focusing on the activities of the local fishermen and their modest cottages.
[58][59] By adopting the plein-air approach, the painters were able to create their works in the open, immediately capturing the special effects of light and colour on their subjects.
[62] As time went by, Krøyer increasingly painted "moods", works which depicted the special atmosphere of the "Blue Hour" which developed in the evening as the sky merged with the sea.
[68] In 1982, the exhibition rooms were extended with an annex designed by the Royal Surveyor, architect Jacob Blegvad, who also planned the later extension to the museum inaugurated in 1989.
In 2008, the Arken Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen presented "The Skagen Painters — In a New Light", contrasting the paintings depicting the artists with those of the fishermen.
