#danish artist
Thorald Brenstrup (May 25, 1812 - 1883), was a Danish landscape painter who had trained as a porcelain painter while also studying at the Academy in Copenhagen. This was the Golden Age of Danish art, as although influenced by Købke, Eckersbreg and P.C. Skovgaard, Brenstrup became a fine exponent of Danish landscape painting, whether he found his subjects in Italy or at home in the Danish woods.
Above:The Ruins of the Antique Theatre at Tusculum, Italy, 1848 - oil on paper pasted onto canvas (Statens Museum for Kunst)
Henrik Olrik (May 24, 1830 - 1890) was a Danish sculptor, decorator, designer and painter. He trained as a sculptor at the Royal Academy, made figurines, silverware, and even designed the first Danish 10 Kroner bill.
However, it was portraits of members of the Royal House, such as King Christian IX, that buttered his bread. He had excellent technique as witnessed by this genre piece:
Bruden smykkes af sin veninde, 1859 - oil on canvas (SMK)
Sigvard Hansen (May 23, 1859 - 1938) was a Danish landscape painter. He was apprenticed at Aluminia (Porcelain factory) and studied at the Academy at the same time, but never graduated.
His specialty was Danish and foreign winter landscapes which he executed with great skill and sold in copious amounts. Here I have selected an atypical canvas, which I think shows off his technical skill with figures, scenery and a typical Danish grey sky:
Above:The Harbour of Elsinore, Denmark, 1884 - oil on canvas (Shown at Charlottenborg, privately owned)
Johannes Hohlenberg (May 21, 1881 - 1960) was a Danish painter, writer, anthroposophist and philosopher. He had studied with Zahrtmann and then ran his own academy in Paris from 1906 - 1911. After that he got more and more into esotericism, met Rudolf Steiner, traveled to Egypt and India - and wrote about all these things: Yoga, the secrets of the Cheops Pyramid, Nostradamus, etc.
In the 30s he went into political philosophy and proposed a minimal state with shared economy among people but total artistic and philosophical freedom. In the 40s he wrote two books about Søren Kierkegaard.
Above:Modelstudie, 1911 - oil on canvas (Ribe Kunstmuseum)
Einar Hein (May 19, 1875 - 1931), was one of the last generation of Skagen painters. He studied at the Academy in the 1890s and after that with P.S. Krøyer and Roll’s studio in Paris.
Above: Cyklister i havstokken, 1894 - oil on canvas (Skagens Museum)
Jeppe Madsen Ohlsen (May 18, 1891 - 1948) was a largely autodidact Danish painter (he did study in Norway with Christian Krohg).
He painted strange scenes from his hometown Christiansfeld which had an unusual religious community of Moravian Brothers (Herrnhut Brethren) in a style that mixed Naivism, Symbolism and Magcal Realism.
Above:Den Månesyge, 1940 - oil on canvas (Kunstmuseet Brundlund Slot)
Kristen Bjerre (May 17, 1869 - 1943) was a Danish painter and publican. He studied at the Royal Academy and with P.S. Krøyer, and then settled near his home town Lemvig, where he bought a small pub and boarding house in Ferring in 1891.
Many artists and writers came there, including some of Kristen’s brother Niels Bjerre’s friends, such as the painters Jens Vige and Jens Søndergaard who even bought a summer house there, at Bovbjerg where Kristen’s hotel relocated in 1901. Writers included Thøger Larsen, Jeppe Aakjær, and Johan Skjoldborg.
Above:Still Life with Pot Lid, Lemons and Plant, no year - oil on canvas (Privately owned)
Ludvig Find (May 16, 1869 - 1945) was a Danish Modernist painter who did some of his best work while still a student - first a couple of years at the Academy, then much longer with Krøyer and Zahrtmann. His work was Symbolist at the time with lines back to the Renaissance.
After trips to Florence and Paris his style changed to a less pregnant Neo-Impressionist one, and he embarked on an endless series of paintings of children in bright rooms and landscapes - which brought him commercial success as a child portraitist.
He did occasionally still paint worthwhile works, such as this one:
To herrer ved et bord, 1927 - oil on cardboard (Privately owned)
Ulrik Hoff (84 today) is a Danish artist, trained at the Academy in the early 1960s with Palle Nielsen and others. For many years he ran his own prep school for young artists seeking entry into the Academy.
Hoff almost exclusively paints abstract landscapes, inspired by Northern Zealand (Tibirke) or the flat areas of Southern Jutland.
Above:Aftenstemning, Helsingør, 2001 - oil on canvas (Dansk Kunstgalleri
Vilhelm Melbye (May 14, 1824 - 1882) was a Danish marine and landscape painter. He was one of three brothers who all were successful marine painters, and Anton Melbye was Vilhelm’s primary teacher, although he did attend classes at the Academy.
Anton came to London already as a teen and preferred being abroad. After completing his training in Copenhagen, he studied for a year in Düsseldorf and Paris and then settled with commercial success in London. In 1862 he finally returned to Copenhagen and eventually became a professor at the Academy shortly before his death…
Above:Boats on the Lake, Scottish Highlands (Loch Lomond), 1856 - oil on canvas (Privately owned)
Peter Hansen (May 13, 1868 - 1928) was a Danish painter, considered one of the three original members of Fynboerne, a group of primarily landscape painters, who were the core students at Zahrtmann’s alternative Academy, Kunstnernes Frie Studieskole in the late 1880s.
Hansen was a native of Faaborg on Funen, and kept his house there which served as a summer base for him and his painter friends, Fritz Syberg (who married his sister) and Johannes Larsen. During winters Hansen and his family lived in Copenhagen. and he painted urban social realist sceneries. He also mastered portrait and genre painting.
Above:Landskab ved Lerbjerg, no year but after 1903 - oil on canvas (Brandts)
Frederik Vermehren (May 12, 1823 - 1910) was a Danish painter and professor at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen. He was a dominant figure in Danish art in the second half of the 19. century, and a more conservative realist of the National Romantic school than contemporaries such as Zahrtmann and Krøyer. He was also in charge of acquisitions for the National Gallery (SMK) for a decade.
Above:Vinteraften ved Susåen, no date - oil on canvas (SMK)
Jens Vige (May 11, 1864 - 1912) was a Danish social-realist painter. He trained at the Academy and later with P.S. Krøyer. After marrying, he settled at Hammer Bakker in Northern Jutland and developed a preference for open air painting (he only worked summers) in Skagen and other heath and moor landscapes up north…
Above:Kvinder hakker lyng, 1906 - oil on canvas (SMK)
Agnete Therkildsen (May 10, 1900 - 1993) was an autodidact Danish artist who went from rural naturalism to abstract, colorist art - often with figurative elements such as birds and other winged beings. She worked first with oils, but from the 1950s onward often with collages of found items.
Above:Blue Man and Birds, 1969 - oil on canvas (SMK)
Augusta Dohlmann (May 9, 1847 - 1914) was a Danish painter, known for her flower paintings and still life compositions. Dohlmann studied and worked mainly in Paris where female artists had better access to art schools and academies and to being recognized for their abilities as artists. Back in Denmark Dohlmann helped start the Academy affiliated art school for women and to organize the 1895 Women’s Exhibition.
Above:Still Life with Birds, Vegetables and Spanish Grapes, 1902 - oil on canvas (Privately owned)
Paul Bloch (May 8, 1869 - 1946) was a Danish painter whose career was cut short by mental illness, which meant he spent his last 40+ years in hospital.
He had studied at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, and his father was the well-known history painter Carl Bloch. Paul painted a small number of light interior paintings and genre pieces, such as this one:
Interiør med ung kvinde, som læser højt for veninde, before 1900 - oil on canvas (privately owned)
Sonny Tronborg (May 7, 1953 - 2009) was a Danish artist of the 80s generation of ‘young, wild’ experimentalists - film, performance, installation art was in at the Academy back then.
However, Tronborg also painted more traditional works, inspired by nature, and did decorative work for churches. He was known for his use of gold and golden colors.
He is very well represented at SMK, where this work, part of a series, can be found:
Manna, 2005 - Acrylic, lacquer and pencil on wood (Statens Museum for Kunst)
Christine Swane (May 29, 1876 - 1960) was a Danish artist, whose brother was Johannes Larsen and who was married to Sigurd Swane, both prominent members of Fynbomalerne.
However Christine wanted more than becoming just another regional landscape painter, and she developed her own brand of post-Cubist still life painting, almost always held in green, blue and yellow colors.
She chose Grønningen as her artists’ association, and worked across media with ceramics, textiles and paint, creating many decorative works as well as canvas art.
Above:Opstilling med kardemomme, 1948 - oil on canvas (SMK)
Frederik Rohde (May 27, 1816 - 1886) was a Danish landscape painter who trained at the Academy and in addition took private lessons from Christen Købke. Rohde got a travel scholarship and went to Germany, Austria and Switzerland where he may have picked up a preference for winter landscapes, of which he painted very many throughout his career.
Above:Winter Landscape, 1848 - oil on canvas (SMK)
Elise Konstantin-Hansen (May 4, 1858 - 1946) was a Danish artist, whose father and brothers were also all artists. She was trained at home, and later by Tuxen and at a private Paris academy. In 1888 she entered the Academy’s Art School for Women, and from 1893 she exhibited regularly at Den Frie. She was also a prolific ceramics artist and late in life also became a writer. Her art focused on nature, esp. bird life.
Above:Strandparti med mågekoloni, 1924 - oil on canvas (privately owned)
Maja Lisa Engelhardt (b. May 2, 1956) is a Danish artist, known for her work in Danish churches, including one of the very smallest, Lodbjerg Kirke, down the road from where I live.
Engelhardt trained at Det fynske Kunstakademi in the late 1970s and has lived in France since 1981. Her husband, Peter Brandes, bought Asger Jorn’s villa in Colombe, outside Paris, and they live and work there.
Her work is often abstract landscape painting, as in this canvas from SMK:
Vej gennem landskab, 2000 - acrylic on canvas (SMK)
Lars Physant (65 today) is a Danish artist who works out a of Naturalist tradition but spikes it up with what he has dubbed multiversal realism, seeing the object, whether a landscape or a portrait, from several angles simultaneously.
Physant is autodidact as an artist, and has lived and worked in Spain for decades. He is mainly known for his portraits of members of the Danish Royal House, but I prefer his more spiritual work and transcendental landscapes.
Above:Transcendens(Vindensfarve), 2014 - oil on canvas
Jais Nielsen (April 23, 1885 - 1961) was a Danish painter and ceramics/glass artist. He was among the first Danes to absorb Cubism and Futurism/Vorticism into his art (he had spent 3 years in Paris from 1911 to 1914), and he shocked the Danish establishment by exhibiting works like this one:
Afgang!/Departure! - 1918 (oil on canvas). First shown at Charlottenborg, Fall Exhibition, 1918 - now at Fuglsang Kunstmuseum.
Erik A. Frandsen is a Danish conceptual artist, and he turns 65 today. He is well-educated in the graphic arts (in Paris), ceramics (in Greece) and sculpture (in Carrara, Italy). Frandsen is also the co-founder of Værkstedet Værst in 1981 with other of the ‘young wild’ generation of Danish artists.
Above is an installation photo from a show at Horsens Kunstmuseum (2013), titled Pilgrimage for an Armchair Explorer, for which Frandsen had made large acrylic paintings, painted sculptures and other objects.
