Michael Ancher

Michael 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. He was born on June 9, 1849, at Rutsker on the island of Bornholm. He attended school in Rønne but had to leave without completing his secondary education due to his father's financial difficulties. He worked as an apprentice clerk at Kalø Manor near Rønde in eastern Jutland, where he met painters Theodor Philipsen and Vilhelm Groth, who encouraged him to pursue a career in painting. He studied at C.V Nielsen's art school and the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen, where he learned from Wilhelm Marstrand and Frederik Vermehren. He visited Skagen, a small fishing village in the north of Jutland, in 1874 and became a key member of the Skagen Painters, a group of artists who congregated there each summer to paint en plein air. He married fellow painter and Skagen native Anna Brøndum in 1880 and settled there permanently. He achieved his artistic breakthrough in 1879 with the painting Will He Round the Point?, which depicts a fisherman anxiously watching a boat in the stormy sea. He painted many scenes of the life and work of the Skagen fishermen, combining realism and classical composition. He also painted portraits, landscapes, interiors, and historical subjects. He was influenced by the naturalistic concept of his wife, who advocated for simple and realistic reproduction of colours and objects. He created what has been called modern monumental figurative art, such as A Baptism. He died on September 19, 1927, in Skagen. He is regarded as one of the most important Danish artists of his time and his works are displayed in many museums and galleries in Denmark and abroad.