Carl Johan Wilhelm Madsen, commonly known as Karl Madsen, (22 March 1855 – 16 April 1938) was a Danish painter and art historian with close connections to the Skagen Painters.
Carl Johan Wilhelm Madsen, commonly known as Karl Madsen, (22 March 1855 – 16 April 1938) was a Danish painter and art historian with close connections to the Skagen Painters.
Born in Copenhagen on 22 March 1855, Madsen was the son of painters Andreas Peter Madsen and Sophie Thorsøe Madsen. He completed his schooling at Sorø Academy before attending C.V. Nielsen's art school in 1871. From 1872 to 1876, he studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He was a student of Vilhelm Kyhn and of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1876–1879).
Madsen was greatly influenced in the early 1860s by the radical new departure in Danish culture, led by Georg Brandes, whose lectures at Copenhagen University he followed, and Holger Drachmann, who published his strong views on Danish art and on disappointing conditions at the Art Academy. In 1871, Drachmann went to Skagen, a fishing village at the northernmost tip of Jutland, to paint outdoor scenes and the local fishermen. Almost simultaneously, Madsen also arrived in Skagen.
During his first year at the Art Academy, he met Michael Ancher, whom he persuaded to join him in Skagen in July 1874. There he gave Anna Brøndum, later Anna Ancher, lessons in painting. His art work in 1873–1874 and from 1879 to 1880 shows that he was one of the key figures among the Skagen Painters. His portraits had a vitality comparable to those of Michael and Anna Ancher and Christian Krohg, but he lacked the virtuosity and sense of colour enjoyed by Peder Severin Krøyer, Viggo Johansen and the Swedish and Norwegian painters. His most interesting works are perhaps those from his last year in Paris where he came under the influence of the Barbizon school and possibly Édouard Manet, although they still tend to be rather dark and dull compared to the brighter works of the Impressionists who were influenced by the young Naturalists.
The gap between Madsen and the trends of the times as well as his own economic problems were probably behind his decision to become a professional writer. On Drachmann's recommendation, he became an art critic with Dagavisen in 1881. As a frequent contributor to Politiken and other periodicals, including Tilskueren , [1] he became one of Denmark's most influential art commentators and critics. He was a champion of Dutch art and wrote Japansk Malerkunst (1885), a pioneering book on the art of Japan.
As a museum expert, Madsen became recognized as an authority on Dutch art and brought about a reassessment of Danish art in the first half of the 19th century, especially with his biography of Johan Lundbye in 1895. He was the director of Statens Museum for Kunst from 1911 to 1925, [2] and director of Skagens Museum from 1928 to 1938. [3]
Madsen received an honorary doctorate at Lund University and became a Knight in the Order of the Dannebrog in 1909 and Commander 2nd Class in 1925.
Madsen married twice. He married his first wife Johanne Henriette Møller on 3 June 1880 but she died on 9 March the following year during the birth of their first child. He then married Thora Juliane Nielsen (5 August 1858 – 9 December 1929) on 4 July 1883. They had four children, two sons and two daughters.
Madsen's son by his first wife, Henry Sofus Madsen (1881–1921) was an egyptologist, journalist and editor. Another son, Svend Viggo Madsen (1885–1954) was also a painter. His elder daughter, Sofie Madsen (1887–1965) married the painter Arne Lofthus [4] Madsen died on 16 April 1938 and was buried in Assistens Cemetery. [5]
Skagen is Denmark's northernmost town, on the east coast of the Skagen Odde peninsula in the far north of Jutland, part of Frederikshavn Municipality in Nordjylland, 41 kilometres (25 mi) north of Frederikshavn and 108 kilometres (67 mi) northeast of Aalborg. The Port of Skagen is Denmark's main fishing port and it also has a thriving tourist industry, attracting 2 million people annually.
Peder Severin Krøyer, also known as P. S. Krøyer, was a Danish painter.
Michael Peter Ancher was a Danish realist artist, and widely known for his paintings of fishermen, the Skagerak and the North Sea, and other scenes from the Danish fishing community in Skagen.
Anna Ancher was a Danish artist associated with the Skagen Painters, an artist colony on the northern point of Jylland, Denmark. She is considered to be one of Denmark's greatest visual artists.
Holger Henrik Herholdt Drachmann was a Danish poet, dramatist and painter. He was a member of the Skagen artistic colony and became a figure of the Scandinavian Modern Breakthrough Movement.
Karl (Kalle) Christian Bovin (1907–1985) was a Danish painter whose work focused on landscapes of Odsherred, a region in the north-west of Zealand. In the 1930s, he became a central member in the Odsherred Painters artists' colony and helped to found the Corner artists association.
The Skagen Painters were a group of Scandinavian artists who gathered in the village of Skagen, the northernmost part of Denmark, from the late 1870s until the turn of the century. Skagen was a summer destination whose scenic nature, local milieu and social community attracted northern artists to paint en plein air, emulating the French Impressionists—though members of the Skagen colony 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 that they had learned in Paris. Among the group were Anna and Michael Ancher, Peder Severin Krøyer, Holger Drachmann, Karl Madsen, Laurits Tuxen, Marie Krøyer, Carl Locher, Viggo Johansen and Thorvald Niss from Denmark, Oscar Björck and Johan Krouthén from Sweden, and Christian Krohg and Eilif Peterssen from Norway. The group gathered together regularly at the Brøndums Hotel.
Viggo Johansen was a Danish painter and active member of the group of Skagen Painters who met every summer in the north of Jutland. He was one of Denmark's most prominent painters in the 1890s.
Oscar Gustaf Björck was a Swedish painter and a professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts.
Skagens Museum is an art museum in Skagen, Denmark, that exhibits an extensive collection of works by members of the colony of Skagen Painters who lived and worked in the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Important artists include Marie and P. S. Krøyer, Anna and Michael Ancher, Laurits Tuxen, Viggo Johansen, and Holger Drachmann. The museum also hosts special exhibitions. Its facilities include a café in the Garden House, an old building which for a while served as home residence and studio of Anna and Michael Ancher.
Brøndums Hotel, in the little harbor town of Skagen in the north of Denmark, is remembered for its close associations with the late 19th-century artists colony known as the Skagen Painters. It still operates as a hotel today.
Christen Degn Brøndum was the proprietor of Brøndums Hotel in Skagen, Denmark, which was closely associated with the Skagen Painters.
Drachmann's House, also known as Villa Pax, is one of the major houses of Skagen, northern Denmark. Located on Hans Baghs Vej towards the western side of the town, it was built in 1829 and is now a museum. It is a writer's home museum dedicated to the writer and marine painter Holger Drachmann who lived in the house from 1902 until his death in a sanatorium in Hornbæk in January 1908. Drachmann had regularly visited Skagen from 1871.
Will He Round the Point? is an 1880 oil-on-canvas painting by Michael Ancher, a Danish painter associated with the Skagen Painters. The painting is particularly notable as Ancher sold it to Christian IX of Denmark, bringing Skagen and its artistic community to wider attention.
Midsummer Eve Bonfire on Skagen Beach is a 1906 painting by the Danish artist P.S. Krøyer. The large work, which took several years to complete, shows many of the artists in the group known as the Skagen Painters as well as influential members of Skagen's local community.
Launching the Boat. Skagen is an 1884 painting by the Swedish artist Oscar Björck. It depicts the activities of the local fishermen, a favourite subject for the Skagen Painters. Launching the Boat is the largest of Björck's open-air paintings from Skagen. It is on display in Skagens Museum.
Summer Evening on Skagen's Southern Beach is a painting by Peder Severin Krøyer (1851–1909), from 1893, and is counted as one of his masterpieces. Krøyer was one of the most notable members of the Danish artistic community known as the Skagen Painters. The works of Krøyer often emphasise the special effects of the Skagen light, with several memorable works depicting beach scenes.
Harvesters is a 1905 oil painting on canvas by the Danish artist Anna Ancher, a member of the artists' community known as the Skagen Painters which flourished in Skagen in the north of Jutland in Denmark in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Suzette Catherine Holten was a Danish painter and ceramist who belonged to the Skovgaard family of artists. In addition to landscapes, flower paintings and portraits, she created and decorated ceramics and also worked as an embroiderer. As a woman, she was unable to achieve the same level of acclaim as her father or brothers.
Helga Cathrine Ancher (1883–1964) was a Danish painter. As the daughter of Anna and Michael Ancher, she was closely associated with the Skagen Painters. Most of her paintings were of her family and friends in Skagen and of local landscapes.
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