Anna Ancher

Anna Ancher (18 August 1859 – 15 April 1935) was a Danish artist associated with the Skagen Painters, an artist colony on the northern point of Jylland, Denmark. She is considered to be one of Denmark's greatest visual artists.

Background

Anna Kirstine Brøndum was born in Skagen, Denmark, the daughter of Ane Hedvig Møller (1826–1916) and Erik Andersen Brøndum (1820–1890). She was the only one of the Skagen Painters who was born and grew up in Skagen, where her father owned the Brøndums Hotel. The artistic talent of Anna Ancher became obvious at an early age and she became acquainted with pictorial art via the many artists who settled to paint in Skagen, in the north of Jylland.

While she studied drawing for three years at the Vilhelm Kyhn College of Painting in Copenhagen, she developed her own style and was a pioneer in observing the interplay of different colors in natural light. She also studied drawing in Paris at the atelier of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes along with Marie Triepcke, who would marry Peder Severin Krøyer, another Skagen painter.

In 1880 she married fellow painter Michael Ancher, whom she met in Skagen. They had one child, daughter Helga Ancher. Despite pressure from society that married women should devote themselves to household duties, she continued painting after marriage.

Career

Anna Ancher was considered to be one of the great Danish pictorial artists by virtue of her abilities as a character painter and colorist. Her art found its expression in Nordic art's modern breakthrough toward a more truthful depiction of reality, e.g. in ''Blue Ane'' (1882) and ''The Girl in the Kitchen'' (1883–1886)."Anna Ancher"
''Michael og Anna Anchers Hus''. Retrieved 16 October 2011.

Style

Ancher preferred to paint interiors and simple themes from the everyday lives of the Skagen people, especially fishermen, women, and children. She was intensely preoccupied with exploring light and color, as in ''Interior with Clematis'' (1913). She also created more complex compositions such as ''A Funeral'' (1891). Anna Ancher's works often represented Danish art abroad. Ancher has been known for portraying similar civilians from the Skagen art colony in her works, including an old blind woman.

Anna Ancher has been praised for her painting entitled, ''Sørg'' (1902), which depicts a blonde long-haired, naked woman on one side of the work, a funerary cross in the middle, and an older pious woman draped in black clothing. The religious context of the painting could be related to Ancher's own religious upbringing. Her portrayal of the female nude is unique for the time, given that this woman is not overtly sexualized and created solely as an object for the male gaze, as was typical among contemporary paintings of female nudes. Scholar Alice R. Price asserts that this painting is a reflection of Ancher's position as a woman of faith living in the traditional bohemian lifestyle of artists, that Price interprets as indicative of an ongoing inner conflict for the artist.

Recognition

She exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. She was awarded the Ingenio et Arti medal in 1913, and the Tagea Brandt Rejselegat in 1924.

Ancher was included in the 2018 exhibit, ''Women in Paris 1850-1900''.

Residence

The Skagen residence of Anna and Michael Ancher was purchased in 1884. In 1913, a large studio annex was added to the property. This also formed part of what is on display publicly today as a museum dedicated to both Anna and Michael Ancher. Upon her death in 1964, their daughter, Helga Ancher, left the house and all of its contents to a foundation. The former residence was restored and opened as a museum and visitor attraction.

In 1967, Michael and Anna Ancher's house (''Anchers Hus'') in Skagen was converted into a museum by the Helga Ancher Foundation before ''Anchers Hus'' opened to the public for tours. The original furniture and paintings created by the Anchers and other Skagen artists are shown in the restored home and studio. Art exhibitions are arranged in the Saxild House (''Saxilds Gaard''), another building on the property. It is filled with displays of paintings by Michael and Anna Ancher, as well as by many other Skagen painters who made up their circle of friends.

Correspondance

A collection of almost 4,000 letters between Anna and Michael Ancher and their friends, with comments by the art historian Elisabeth Fabritius, was published as ''Anna og Mchael Ancher. Breve og fotografier 1866-1935'' I-VI was published by Forlaget Historika. in 2020.

Danish thousand-kroner banknote

Anna and Michael Ancher were featured on the front side of the DKK1000 banknote, which came into circulation on 25 November 2004 and subsequently, was replaced. The front of the banknote had a double portrait of Anna and Michael Ancher, derived from two 1884 paintings by Peder Severin Krøyer,
which originally hung on the walls in the dining room at Brøndums Hotel.

Paintings

Image: Syende fiskerpige.jpeg, ''Syende fiskerpige'' (''Sewing Fisherman's Wife'', 1890)
File:Anna Ancher - Harvesters - Google Art Project.jpg , '' Harvesters'', 1905
Image: Anna Ancher3.jpg, ''Fru Ane Brøndum i den blå stue'' (''Portrait of the Artist's Mother'', 1913)
File:Anna Ancher - Sunlight in the blue room - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Solskin i den blå stue'' ('' Sunlight in the Blue Room'', 1891)
File:Anna Ancher Pigen i koekkenet 1883-86.jpg, ''Pigen i køkkenet'' (''Girl in the Kitchen'' )
File:PluckingTheGeese AnnaAncher.jpg, ''Plucking the Christmas Goose'', 1904
Image:Anna Ancher - Interieur mit Mohnblumen und lesender Frau (Lizzy Hohlenberg) 1905.jpeg, ''Interiør med røde valmuer'' (''Interior with poppies and reading woman'', 1905)
File:Young Girl Before a Lit Lamp (Anna Ancher).jpg, ''Young Girl Before a Lit Lamp'', 1887
File:Anna Ancher - A Funeral - Google Art Project.jpg, ''A Funeral'', 1891
File:Living room with lilac curtins and blue Clematis.jpg, ''Stue med lyseblå gardiner og blå Clematis'' (''Room with light blue curtains and Blue Clematis '', 1913)
File:Anna Ancher-Interior With The Painter's Daughter Helga Sewing.jpg , ''Interior With The Painter's Daughter Helga Sewing'', 1890

File:Evening Prayer (Anna Ancher).jpg, ''Evening Prayer'', 1888

Retrospective exhibitions

* ''Anna Ancher – Skagens indre og ytre rom'', Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, Norway, 2021
* ''I Am Anna. A Homage to Anna Ancher'', Skagens Museum, Denmark, 2009
* ''Anna Ancher'', Arken Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, 2011
* ''Anna Ancher & Co.—The Painting Women'', Ribe Kunstmuseum, Denmark, 2007
* ''Anna Ancher—det besjælede rum'', Ribe Kunstmuseum, Denmark, 1999
* ''Anna Ancher, 1859–1935, Malerin in Skagen'', Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hannover, 1994–1995

See also

* Skagen Painters

References

Literature

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External links

Brøndums Hotel
Danish



Paintings and drawings by Anna Ancher

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ancher, Anna
1859 births
1935 deaths
Skagen Painters
19th-century Danish painters
20th-century Danish painters
19th-century Danish letter writers
20th-century Danish letter writers
Recipients of Ingenio et Arti
People from Skagen
20th-century Danish artists
20th-century Danish women painters
19th-century Danish women painters