Anna and Michael Ancher

Anna:
1859-1935
Malerin
* August 18, 1859 Skagen
+ April 15, 1935

Michael:
1849-1927
Maler
* June 9, 1849 Bornholm
+ September 19, 1927

[by Dr. Birgitte Possing, Head of the Manuscript Department at the Royal Library]

Anna Ancher was born and grew up in the northernmost area of Jutland, called Skagen (the Skaw). Her talent became obvious at an early age and she grew acquainted with pictorial art via the many artists who settled to paint in Skagen. She also met Michael Ancher, whom she married in 1880. They had one daughter, Helga Ancher. Before then, Anna Ancher had studied for 3 years at the Vilhelm Kyhn College of Painting in Copenhagen. However, Anna Ancher developed her own style and was a pioneer in observing the interplay of different colours in natural light. Anna Ancher is considered to be one of the great Danish pictorial artists by virtue of her abilities as a character painter and colourist. Anna Ancher's art found its expression in Nordic art's modern breakthrough towards a more truthful depiction of reality, e.g. in Blue Ane (1882) and The Girl in the Kitchen (1883-1886). Anna Ancher preferred to paint interiors and simple themes from the everyday lives of the Skagen people and fishermen and she was intensely preoccupied with exploring light and colour, e.g. in Interior with Clematis (1913). She also created more complex compositions such as A Funeral (1891). Anna Ancher's works have often represented Danish art abroad.
  Michael Ancher was born on the island of Bornholm, but his life as an artist was spent in Skagen. He became famous for his paintings of Danish fishermen, both portraits and full-figure paintings. His paintings are classics and he is probably one of Denmark's most popular artists. Michael Ancher's works are true-to-life depictions of reality and at the same time monumental figure compositions such as Will he Round the Point? (1880). Michael Ancher's life's work is founded on the heroic series The Lifeboat is Carried Through The Dunes (1883), The Crew Are Saved (1894) and The Drowned Man (1896). Michael Ancher was influenced by his traditional training at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in the 1870s which imposed strict rules for composition, and he found it difficult to adjust to Scandinavian painting's modern breakthrough, the Skagen school. His marriage to Anna Ancher did, however, introduce him to the naturalistic concept of undecorated reproduction of reality and its colours. By combining the pictorial composition of his youth with the teachings of naturalism Michael Ancher created what has been called modern monumental figurative art such as A Baptism (1883-1887). The works of Anna and Michael Ancher can be seen at the Skagen Museum, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, the Frederiksborg Museum, the Hirschsprung Collection and Ribe Art Museum. In 1904 Anna Ancher received the Eckersberg Medal and in 1913 the Ingenio et Arti award. Michael Ancher received the Eckersberg Medal in 1889. In 1967 Michael and Anna Ancher's house was turned into a museum by the Helga Ancher Foundation. Originally the paintings hung in the dining room of the Brøndum Hotel in Skagen town. The painter P.S. Krøyer conceived the idea of placing paintings by different artists in the wall panels. In 1946 the dining hall was donated to the Skagen Museum. (The portraits of Anna and Michael Ancher were painted by P.S. Krøyer in 1884.)

Quelle: "Website der dänischen Landesbank" 2000