Andreas Riis Carstensen

Andreas Riis Carstensen was a Danish painter who specialized in maritime scenes, notably of Greenland and Egypt. He was born in Sennels, near Thisted, where his father was a pastor. After his father's death, he moved to Haderslev with his mother. He became a sailor after his confirmation and made several long voyages. During a stay in Quebec, Canada, he started to draw. He returned to Denmark and enrolled in the Royal Danish Academy of Art, but left without graduating. He also studied under Carl Dahl, a famous marine painter, and Jean-Léon Gérôme, a French academic painter. He exhibited his works regularly at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition and won the Neuhausenske Prize in 1879 for a painting of sunset on the Kattegat. He traveled extensively to Greenland, Egypt, the Danish West Indies, and other places, and created many paintings inspired by his observations. He was commissioned by the brewer and art collector Carl Jacobsen to paint a series of eleven paintings from Egypt. He married Ida Lucie Catharina Müller in 1890 and settled in Helsingør, where he died in 1906. His paintings are known for their realistic and atmospheric depiction of the sea and the landscapes. He is considered one of the most important Danish marine painters of his time.