Hans Andersen Brendekilde

Hans Andersen Brendekilde was a Danish painter who was born on April 7, 1857, in Brændekilde, a village near Odense. He was a distant relative of Hans Christian Andersen, the famous writer of fairy tales. He left his parents at the age of four and lived with his grandparents until he was ten, when he worked as a shepherd. He showed talent for carving animals in wood and was apprenticed to a wood carver and a stonemason in Odense. He also studied flower painting and was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1877. He became friends with Laurits Andersen Ring, another painter from a poor rural background, and they shared a studio and exhibited together. They also changed their surnames to the names of their birthplaces to avoid confusion. Brendekilde was influenced by the naturalism and realism of the modern breakthrough movement, which aimed to depict the social and economic realities of the Danish people. He painted scenes of rural life, such as peasants working in the fields, children playing, and old people suffering. He also painted historical subjects, portraits, and landscapes. He was especially known for his painting Worn Out, which shows an old farm worker collapsed on the ground after a hard day's work. He also illustrated books by Henrik Pontoppidan and Vilhelm Bergsøe. He died of pneumonia on March 30, 1942, in Jyllinge. 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.