Pietro Kobke Krohn

Pietro Krohn was a self-taught Danish painter who specialized in portraits. He was born in Copenhagen in 1840, where his father was a clerk in the Police Court. He ran away from home at the age of 14 and worked in a bakery. He later took a commercial exam in Aalborg and moved to Copenhagen, where he worked in various offices and took piano lessons. He married the painter Frode Nielsen Dann in 1918 and traveled with him to California, where he had his breakthrough as a painter. He returned to Denmark in 1929 and painted many portraits of the local elite. He also wrote a book about his life in America, which was later adapted into a film. He spent some time in Mallorca, Paris, and Africa, where he painted more portraits and landscapes. He founded the Danish Society of Female Artists in 1916 to promote women's art. He died in 1905 at the age of 65.