Looking at the lifeboat

 

At the National Museum of Art this statue is looking at one of the most famous Danish paintings, The Lifeboat is Taken through the Dunes, 1883, by Danish painter Michael Ancher (1849 - 1927). Painted at the artist hangout of Skagen at the northern tip of Jutland, it shows the hard life of the fishermen at that time and place.

 

Colour in the Street

Some of the artists on the streets of inner Copenhagen might not be in league with the French, Italian or Flemish masters, but they are not bad either. This one was just setting up shop when I passed by, and he was already creating a crowd. They are pretty harmless and they do add some colour to the street.

Portrait of Karen Blixen

Also portraits of Danes who made a difference are numerous at Frederiksberg Castle. The newer ones clearly show how much art has moved during time. This one is of Karen Blixen, better known outside of Denmark by her pseudonym of Isak Dinesen.

The Tradition of the Historic Painting

The museum at Frederiksborg Castle has a long tradition of commissioning historic paintings of the high points of Danish history. And that is a tradition they still follow as is seen with this painting of a, to Danes, well-known incident during the war in the former Yugoslavia.

A Steady Hand

Many of the old paintings at Frederiksborg Castle need the occasional brush-up, and even though the restorers try to stay behind covers, it's possibly to watch them in action. This is a job that needs a steady hand and lot of patience.

Historic Paintings

When I'm reading books on Danish history, they are often illustrated with a lot of paintings with historic motifs, like this one "The conspirators riding from Finderup barn following the murder of Eric V Klipping in 1286" by Otto Bache. Many of them were painted for the museum at Frederiksborg Castle in the late 19th hundreds, so when visiting here, the paintings are like old friends.

A big painting

This painting on a house end is from the same street as yesterday's post, Gl. Kongevej. In fact it's right across from the Planetarium I showed you in an earlier post. I'm not sure what the motive is, so I'm open to suggestions:-)

Painting the house

In Copenhagen many of the older house ends are painted. It can be a naturalistic painting, an add or more abstract like the one above found in Gl. Kongevej (Old King's Road) in Frederiksberg. A great idea to cover otherwise dull surfaces in colours and forms instead of just giving them one colour (which of course would be a shade of grey). Some of these paintings was in fact made by artists like Henry Heerup or Hans Scherfig. Many of the paintings disappear over time due to neglect, smog or demolition, or they're covered by new owners who like something else.