Peter Ilsted - Sunshine Falling on a Door

Peter Ilsted (14 February 1861 – 16 April 1933) was a Danish

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique ...

and

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

. He was most associated with domestic interior scenes.

Biography

Peter Vilhelm Ilsted was born at

Sakskøbing Sakskøbing (), previously spelled Sakskjøbing, is a town on the island of Lolland in south Denmark. It has a population of 4,514 (1 January 2025).Guldborgsund, Denmark. He was the son of merchant Jens Peter Ilsted and Johanne Sophie Lund. His sister Ida married the painter

Vilhelm Hammershøi Vilhelm Hammershøi (), often anglicised as Vilhelm Hammershoi (15 May 186413 February 1916), was a Danish painter. He is known for his poetic, subdued portraits and interiors. In 1905, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote of the artist, "Hammershøi is no ...

(1864–1916) in 1891. He married Ingeborg Lovisa Petersen (1869–1945) in 1891. He came to the

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts () has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark. History The Royal Danish Academy of Portraiture, Sculpture, and Architecture in Cope ...

in 1878, completing his course of study in five years. He made his debut at the

Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition The Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition (''Charlottenborg Forårsudstilling'') is an annual art exhibition in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. The event is held at the Charlottenborg Exhibition Building (''Kunsthal Charlottenborg''). Kunsthal Cha ...

in 1883. Two years later, he joined a study trip across Italy to Egypt, Palestine, Greece and Turkey. Later he visited Scotland, England, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Morocco and France. With support from the Cultural Ministry, he traveled to the

Exposition Universelle (1889) The of 1889 (), better known in English as the 1889 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 6 May to 31 October 1889. It was the fifth of ten major expositions held in the city between 1855 and 1937. It attracted more t ...

in Paris. He was awarded the

Eckersberg Medal The Eckersberg Medal (originally the ''Akademiets Aarsmedaille'' or Annual Academy Medal) is an annual award of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. It is named after Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, known as the father of Danish painting. The ...

in 1890 and 1899. He became an assistant at the Royal Danish Academy from 1893–1905 and worked periodically as a

conservator-restorer A conservator-restorer is a professional responsible for the Conservation-restoration of cultural heritage, preservation of artistic and cultural artifacts, also known as cultural heritage. Conservators possess the expertise to preserve cultural ...

. Ilsted died in Copenhagen in 1933.

Artistic style

Peter Ilsted and Vilhelm Hammershøi, together with Carl Holsøe (1863–1935), were leading artists in early 20th-century Denmark. All three artists were members of the Free Exhibitions (''Den Frie Udstilling''), a progressive artists association founded in 1891. They are famous for painting images of "Sunshine and Silent Rooms", all in subtle colors. Their works reflect the orderliness of a tranquil life — similar to the earlier works of

Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , ; see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch ...

. Their art was later referred to as the ‘Copenhagen Interior School’. These interiors evoke at once a sense of calm and mystery. The orderly rooms are often viewed from behind—causing one to wonder whether the scenes are really tranquil.

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral a ...

, Duret and important art critics were early admirers and collectors of Ilsted's works. While at first glance their work appears similar, Ilsted and Hammershøi were in fact quite different. Hammershøi's work has an aloof austerity, in contrast to Ilsted's scenes of common life. Though sometimes Hammershøi's colorful early pictures are reminiscent of

James Tissot Jacques Joseph Tissot (; 15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902), better known as James Tissot ( , ), was a French painter, illustrator, and caricaturist. He was born to a drapery merchant and a milliner and decided to pursue a career in art at a y ...

(1836–1902), his work is quintessentially Danish. However, Ilsted was more of a technician, and he made considerable contributions in the field of graphic arts. Ilsted's mezzotints (sometimes printed in colour

à la poupée À, à ( a-grave) is a letter of the Catalan, Emilian-Romagnol, French, Italian, Maltese, Occitan, Portuguese, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Vietnamese, and Welsh languages consisting of the letter A of the ISO basic Latin alphabet and a gr ...

) were very popular and important in his day. They were an innovation in the media. Ilsted exhibited his work all over Europe, in London in 1907, in Germany and at the

Paris Salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

, where Europe's art community was first exposed to his work. Ilsted was a great success in his lifetime and won many awards and accolades for his work. He was the only member of the group to also focus on printmaking. Ilsted's achievements in mezzotints were revolutionary. Some of his

mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the intaglio (printmaking), intaglio family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzo ...

s, most of which were created in black as well as color editions, are considered among the greatest ever made. His greatest contribution, which T. F. Šimon (1877–1942), Manuel Robbe (1872– 1936), and others seemingly adopted was that of inking the plate ''

''. Some art historians have argued that these three men created the technique at about the same time but without consultation. This is uncertain. The

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

(New York) held an important exhibition on the work of Ilsted, Hammershøi, and Vermeer in 2001.

Gallery

Ilsted The dining room.jpg, ''The Dining Room''
(c. 1887) Peter Ilsted - En ung pige, der renser kantareller - 1892 - Statens Museum for Kunst - 2020903 KMS1817.jpg, ''Young Girl Preparing Chantarelles''
(1892) Interior with two girls.jpg, ''Interior with two girls''
(c. 1900) Ilsted, Peter Vilhelm (1861-1933) 1.JPG, ''Woman reading''
(1907) Ilsted The open door.jpg, ''The Open Door''
(c. 1910) Ilsted, Peter Vilhelm (1861-1933) 2.jpg, '' Interior With Girl Reading''
(c. 1910)

References

Other sources

*Donson, Theodore B. (1990) ''Peter Ilsted (1861–1933): Sunshine and Silent Rooms'' (Theodore B. Donson Ltd.) *Lange, Bente (2011) ''Den Frie – Kunstnernes Hus'' (Den Frie Udstillingsbygning) *Berman, Patricia G. (2007) ''In Another Light: Danish Painting in the Nineteenth Century'' (Vendome Press)

External links

Art Signature Dictionary, genuine signature by the artist Peter Ilsted
– Several examples of Peter Ilsted's signature and monogram. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ilsted, Peter 1861 births 1933 deaths People from Guldborgsund Municipality 19th-century Danish engravers 20th-century Danish engravers 19th-century Danish painters 20th-century Danish painters Danish male painters Recipients of the Eckersberg Medal