The Light at the End of the World

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“Little Girl With Flower”
Anna Ancher
1885, pastel
Skagen Museum

By Ray Hassard

In the late 1990s I visited Dublin, Ireland, and stumbled upon a show of Danish paintings at the National Gallery of Ireland called “Krøyer and the Artists’ Colony at Skagen.” At that time in my artistic life I was struggling with my plein air work and I had assumed the French Impressionists held the solutions to my problems. But the light and colors in the Skagen paintings stunned me; in particular, Peder Severin Krøyer’s (1851-1909) scenes of boys in the surf put a smile on my face. Perhaps because I grew up on Long Island and spent many weekends at the beach and on my father’s boat, those paintings touched me in a way the French works couldn’t. 

So who were these people with strange names from a place at the end of the world I had never heard of? And how did they come to paint these pictures that spoke so directly to me? Over the years, I studied the work of the group we know today as the Skagen Painters in books, especially pieces by Krøyer and the Anchers — Michael (1849-1927) and Anna (1859-1935) — and dreamed of going to Skagen myself to see their paintings in person again. This past summer, I finally got the chance. Visiting Skagen’s South Beach, Brøndums Hotel, and many other places where the artists lived and painted, I got the answers to my questions and so much more.

“Threshing in Civita d’Antino”
Peder Severin Krøyer
1890, pastel, 14 x 24 in.
Imago Museum

THE COLONY

Over the years, many painters came and went, but the primary power couples — Michael and Anna (nee Brøndrum) Ancher, and P. S. and Marie Krøyer — remained the leaders of the art colony. Born in her family’s hotel, Anna Brøndrum became fascinated with the artists she waited on and soon decided that she, too, wanted to be a painter. For a young woman from the boondocks of Denmark it was a bold choice, but the other artists encouraged her and provided lessons. Since women were not admitted to the Danish Academy, she studied privately in Copenhagen from 1875 to 1878. In 1880, she married Michael, who had joined the colony six years earlier at Madsen’s invitation. Although Anna’s art teacher advised her to throw away her paints and palette once she married and devote herself to keeping house, she thankfully ignored him.

“Portrait of the Artist’s Father, the Innkeeper Erik Brøndum”
Anna Ancher
1888, pastel, 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.
Skagen Museum

Michael whole-heartedly supported his wife in her artistic development, and they enjoyed a long, mutually rewarding relationship, each fully respecting the artistic ambitions of the other. In their home, their studios sit side by side. Michael’s is masculine and a bit larger, while Anna’s is flooded with light. In general, her paintings reflect aspects of her life in Skagen through interiors, genre scenes, and portraits, with her superb color sense as well as subject matter setting her apart from the others. At her best, Anna ranks among the leading international artists of her day for her paintings and exceeds almost all for her determination and bravery.

Since she had a foot in both worlds, Anna also had a role to play as something of a bridge between locals and the artists, who were seen as exotic outsiders. Whatever tensions may have arisen, however, the locals remembered that Anna was one of them, so the artists couldn’t be that bad.

“Portrait of Michael and Anna Ancher, Gift to the Anchers on the Occasion of their Silver Wedding, 1905”
Peder Severin Krøyer
1905, pastel, 21 1/3 x 28 in.
Skagen Museum

In 1882, the Anchers travelled to Vienna to see Michael’s Will He Round the Point? on display in an international exhibit. While there, they met Krøyer, a man of the world who knew, he told them, “all there was to know” about modern art.

When Krøyer arrived at Skagen in the summer of 1883 he was already famous in European art circles, had studied in Paris with Léon Bonnat, and been well received in the Salon. With Krøyer international attention came to Skagen — as did even more artists. 

Over the course of his career, Krøyer made several wonderful pastels. There are a number of pastels by Anna Ancher as well. Visiting Skagen Museum, I was amused to see that Krøyer used his pastels in a painterly way, while Ancher’s oil paintings echo the bold, pure colors of her pastels.

An Example of one of Anna’s oils:

“Sunlight in the Blue Room”
Anna Ancher
1891, oil on canvas, 23 x 26 in.
Skagen Museum

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