Skagen Painters

Peder Severin Krøyer's Hip, Hip, Hurrah! (1888) depicts some of the group.

Grenen, the tip of the Skagen peninsula

The Skagen Painters were a group of Scandinavian artists who gathered in the area of Skagen, the northernmost part of 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 following the French Impressionists—though members of the Skagen collective were also influenced by realist movements such as the Barbizon school. They broke away from the rather rigid traditions of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, espousing the latest trends they had learnt in Paris.

Skagen, in the very north of Jutland, 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, 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 Björck and Johan Krouthén, Norwegian painters Christian Krohg and Eilif Peterssen, Danish painters Karl Madsen, Laurits Tuxen, Marie Krøyer, Carl Locher, Viggo Johansen, Thorvald Niss, Holger Drachmann and most notably, Anna and Michael Ancher and Peder Severin Krøyer. The gatherings in Skagen were not restricted to painters. Danish writers Georg Brandes and Henrik Pontoppidan and Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén 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, 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 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.

History

Dining room in Brøndums Hotel, Skagen, ca. 1891 showing some of the group and the panel with the artists' portraits

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 impressionism. 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 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'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 whom he had met in Berlin. 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, they met P.S. Krøyer 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, 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! 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

Marie Krøyer painted by her husband P.S. Krøyer (1890)

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 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 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

Main article: Skagen Museum

Skagen's Museum located in the old garden of Brøndum's Hotel

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 Tuxen, 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! by Swedish director Kjell Grede, after the painting with the same name by Krøyer.

Gallery of paintings

The gallery below presents a number of paintings by the Skagen artists, roughly in chronological order.

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  Portside, Christian Krohg, 1879

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  Will he round the point?, Michael Ancher, ca. 1880

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  The Sick Girl, Michael Ancher, 1882

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  Artists' Luncheon at Skagen, P.S. Krøyer, 1883

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  Oscar Björck, Signal of Distress (1883)

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  Sleeping Boy, Johan Krouthén, 1883

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  Båden sættes i søen, Oscar Björck, 1885

• 

  Et l'hombre-parti, Anna Palm de Rosa, 1885

• 

  A Christening, Michael Ancher, 1888

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  Two Fishermen, Michael Ancher, 1889

• 

  Skagen fisherman, Michael Ancher

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  Sewing fisherman's wife, Anna Ancher, 1890

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  Sunlight in the blue room, Anna Ancher, 1891

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  Summer Evening on the Skagen Southern Beach, P.S. Krøyer, 1893

• 

  The Beach of Skagen, Thorvald Niss, ca. 1989

• 

  Self-portrait, P.S. Krøyer, 1897

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  Summer evening on Skagen's beach, P.S. Krøyer, 1899

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  Interior with poppies and reading woman (Lizzy Hohlenberg), Anna Ancher, 1905

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  Midsummer's Eve Bonfire on Skagen's Beach, P.S. Krøyer, 1906

• 

  Boats on Sønderstrand in Skagen, Viggo Johansen, 1910

See also

• Art of Denmark
• Bornholm school of painters

Further reading

• Lise Svanholm, "Northern light: the Skagen painters", Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2004, 274 pp, ISBN 87-02-02817-4

External links

• Skagens Museum

Carl Locher, Mail coach on Skagen Beach, detail