This painting by the Danish artist Laurits Andersen Ring (1854-1933) dates from a particularly interesting period in his oeuvre. It was made in the little town of Frederiksværk, north of Copenhagen, between Denmark's largest lake, Lake Arressø, and the sea. It was here that the artist and his family lived between 1898-1902. This period saw Ring experiment with striking colour contrasts and wide panoramas. Whereas previously, in the late 1880s and early 1890s, he had been fascinated by a morbid form of symbolism, painted in sombre tones, towards the end of the 19th century he started to become more and more interested in realist depictions that veer towards abstraction [1].
Ring played with visual possibilities by enlarging certain details in order to create strange angular repoussoirs, or used asymmetric lines that cut right across a canvas so as to give the viewer a feeling of standing at a certain point, ostensibly overseeing a view whilst simultaneously having their line of vision blocked.
In our painting the artist has used attractive light colours to present an impression of a pleasantly clear day. The waving stalks of grain at the front act as a wall between the viewer and the red-tiled roofs of the houses below. Although there are signs of industrialization, with factory chimneys protruding out in the distance, all seems quiet. It is a paean to nature amidst the urbanization of modern life.
The use of a high horizon and the attempt to play with unusual perspectives had been used by Ring before, and in part they probably derived from his interest in 19th century French art and the way in which this borrowed compositional quirks from Japanese art. The interest in light colours to create a breezy sense of timelessness was new, however. It is not surprising that one of the iconic works that Ring produced during this period was a homage to one of the giants of the Danish Golden Age, the tragic Johan Thomas Lundbye (1818-1848), who, but for his untimely death, would have left even more of an imprint on Danish art.
Lundbye's parents lived near Frederiksværk in the late 1830s, and Lundbye himself produced a number of romantic landscape paintings there. Ring paid homage to Lundbye by painting the bench overlooking Lake Arressø where, according to local legend, Lundbye used to sit and paint [2]. The homage to Lundbye was a salute by Ring to a bygone age and a longing for pure stillness in art.
L. A. Ring is one of Denmark's most important 19th century painters, who developed a wholly idiosyncratic visual language in which realism and symbolism subtly interact. By the time he died, he had notched up considerable succes in his artistic career and had participated in many international exhibitions. Success was not preordained, however. Ring had struggled initially to establish himself as an artist: he had found it difficult to adapt to the strictures of the official curriculum at Copenhagen's Academy. He dropped out and lived a hand-to-mouth existence for much of the 1870s, until he regained a sense of direction after enrolling at the "free" study school of P.S. Krøyer, Denmark's leading impressionist. He achieved modest success in 1882, when he was first allowed to participate in the prestigious Charlottenborg exhibition. His subsequent travels to France, Belgium and the Netherlands allowed him to become more closely acquainted with French realism, with art by Millet, Bastien-Lepage and Raffaëlli striking a particular chord.
Although Ring was quietly forgotten after his death in 1933, in recent years his art has been rediscovered. Leading international museums have purchased work by the artist in the last four years, including The National Gallery, London; the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio and the Currier Museum of Art, New Hampshire.
_________________________________
1. Ordrupgaard (ed), L.A. Ring. Mellem Lys og mørke, exh.cat., Ordrupgaard 2016, pp. 104/5.
2. "Lundbye's bench by Lake Arresø", 1899, oil on canvas, 43,5 x 56 cm, Ordrupgaard Museum, Denmark.
Ring played with visual possibilities by enlarging certain details in order to create strange angular repoussoirs, or used asymmetric lines that cut right across a canvas so as to give the viewer a feeling of standing at a certain point, ostensibly overseeing a view whilst simultaneously having their line of vision blocked.
In our painting the artist has used attractive light colours to present an impression of a pleasantly clear day. The waving stalks of grain at the front act as a wall between the viewer and the red-tiled roofs of the houses below. Although there are signs of industrialization, with factory chimneys protruding out in the distance, all seems quiet. It is a paean to nature amidst the urbanization of modern life.
The use of a high horizon and the attempt to play with unusual perspectives had been used by Ring before, and in part they probably derived from his interest in 19th century French art and the way in which this borrowed compositional quirks from Japanese art. The interest in light colours to create a breezy sense of timelessness was new, however. It is not surprising that one of the iconic works that Ring produced during this period was a homage to one of the giants of the Danish Golden Age, the tragic Johan Thomas Lundbye (1818-1848), who, but for his untimely death, would have left even more of an imprint on Danish art.
Lundbye's parents lived near Frederiksværk in the late 1830s, and Lundbye himself produced a number of romantic landscape paintings there. Ring paid homage to Lundbye by painting the bench overlooking Lake Arressø where, according to local legend, Lundbye used to sit and paint [2]. The homage to Lundbye was a salute by Ring to a bygone age and a longing for pure stillness in art.
L. A. Ring is one of Denmark's most important 19th century painters, who developed a wholly idiosyncratic visual language in which realism and symbolism subtly interact. By the time he died, he had notched up considerable succes in his artistic career and had participated in many international exhibitions. Success was not preordained, however. Ring had struggled initially to establish himself as an artist: he had found it difficult to adapt to the strictures of the official curriculum at Copenhagen's Academy. He dropped out and lived a hand-to-mouth existence for much of the 1870s, until he regained a sense of direction after enrolling at the "free" study school of P.S. Krøyer, Denmark's leading impressionist. He achieved modest success in 1882, when he was first allowed to participate in the prestigious Charlottenborg exhibition. His subsequent travels to France, Belgium and the Netherlands allowed him to become more closely acquainted with French realism, with art by Millet, Bastien-Lepage and Raffaëlli striking a particular chord.
Although Ring was quietly forgotten after his death in 1933, in recent years his art has been rediscovered. Leading international museums have purchased work by the artist in the last four years, including The National Gallery, London; the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio and the Currier Museum of Art, New Hampshire.
_________________________________
1. Ordrupgaard (ed), L.A. Ring. Mellem Lys og mørke, exh.cat., Ordrupgaard 2016, pp. 104/5.
2. "Lundbye's bench by Lake Arresø", 1899, oil on canvas, 43,5 x 56 cm, Ordrupgaard Museum, Denmark.
A View from Frederiksværk, 1899
Signed and dated lower left: L.A. Ring 99
Oil on canvas
71 x 93 cm
Provenance
Collection Hvalsø Møller;
Private collection, Denmark
Exhibitions
Charlottenborg 1900, as no. 378
Literature
Peter Hertz, Maleren L. A. Ring. 1854-1933 (Copenhagen, 1934), repr. p. 322, as "Udsigt fra Bakkerne ved Frederiksværk"
H. Christensen, Fortegnelse over Malerier og Studier af L. A. Ring I Aarene 1880-1910, Copenhagen 1910, no. 414
This painting by the Danish artist Laurits Andersen Ring (1854-1933) dates from a particularly interesting period in his oeuvre. It was made in the little town of Frederiksværk, north of Copenhagen, between Denmark's largest lake, Lake Arressø, and the sea. It was here that the artist and his family lived between 1898-1902. This period saw Ring experiment with striking colour contrasts and wide panoramas. Whereas previously, in the late 1880s and early 1890s, he had been fascinated by a morbid form of symbolism, painted in sombre tones, towards the end of the 19th century he started to become more and more interested in realist depictions that veer towards abstraction [1].
Ring played with visual possibilities by enlarging certain details in order to create strange angular repoussoirs, or used asymmetric lines that cut right across a canvas so as to give the viewer a feeling of standing at a certain point, ostensibly overseeing a view whilst simultaneously having their line of vision blocked.
In our painting the artist has used attractive light colours to present an impression of a pleasantly clear day. The waving stalks of grain at the front act as a wall between the viewer and the red-tiled roofs of the houses below. Although there are signs of industrialization, with factory chimneys protruding out in the distance, all seems quiet. It is a paean to nature amidst the urbanization of modern life.
The use of a high horizon and the attempt to play with unusual perspectives had been used by Ring before, and in part they probably derived from his interest in 19th century French art and the way in which this borrowed compositional quirks from Japanese art. The interest in light colours to create a breezy sense of timelessness was new, however. It is not surprising that one of the iconic works that Ring produced during this period was a homage to one of the giants of the Danish Golden Age, the tragic Johan Thomas Lundbye (1818-1848), who, but for his untimely death, would have left even more of an imprint on Danish art.
Lundbye's parents lived near Frederiksværk in the late 1830s, and Lundbye himself produced a number of romantic landscape paintings there. Ring paid homage to Lundbye by painting the bench overlooking Lake Arressø where, according to local legend, Lundbye used to sit and paint [2]. The homage to Lundbye was a salute by Ring to a bygone age and a longing for pure stillness in art.
L. A. Ring is one of Denmark's most important 19th century painters, who developed a wholly idiosyncratic visual language in which realism and symbolism subtly interact. By the time he died, he had notched up considerable succes in his artistic career and had participated in many international exhibitions. Success was not preordained, however. Ring had struggled initially to establish himself as an artist: he had found it difficult to adapt to the strictures of the official curriculum at Copenhagen's Academy. He dropped out and lived a hand-to-mouth existence for much of the 1870s, until he regained a sense of direction after enrolling at the "free" study school of P.S. Krøyer, Denmark's leading impressionist. He achieved modest success in 1882, when he was first allowed to participate in the prestigious Charlottenborg exhibition. His subsequent travels to France, Belgium and the Netherlands allowed him to become more closely acquainted with French realism, with art by Millet, Bastien-Lepage and Raffaëlli striking a particular chord.
Although Ring was quietly forgotten after his death in 1933, in recent years his art has been rediscovered. Leading international museums have purchased work by the artist in the last four years, including The National Gallery, London; the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio and the Currier Museum of Art, New Hampshire.
_________________________________
1. Ordrupgaard (ed), L.A. Ring. Mellem Lys og mørke, exh.cat., Ordrupgaard 2016, pp. 104/5.
2. "Lundbye's bench by Lake Arresø", 1899, oil on canvas, 43,5 x 56 cm, Ordrupgaard Museum, Denmark.
Ring played with visual possibilities by enlarging certain details in order to create strange angular repoussoirs, or used asymmetric lines that cut right across a canvas so as to give the viewer a feeling of standing at a certain point, ostensibly overseeing a view whilst simultaneously having their line of vision blocked.
In our painting the artist has used attractive light colours to present an impression of a pleasantly clear day. The waving stalks of grain at the front act as a wall between the viewer and the red-tiled roofs of the houses below. Although there are signs of industrialization, with factory chimneys protruding out in the distance, all seems quiet. It is a paean to nature amidst the urbanization of modern life.
The use of a high horizon and the attempt to play with unusual perspectives had been used by Ring before, and in part they probably derived from his interest in 19th century French art and the way in which this borrowed compositional quirks from Japanese art. The interest in light colours to create a breezy sense of timelessness was new, however. It is not surprising that one of the iconic works that Ring produced during this period was a homage to one of the giants of the Danish Golden Age, the tragic Johan Thomas Lundbye (1818-1848), who, but for his untimely death, would have left even more of an imprint on Danish art.
Lundbye's parents lived near Frederiksværk in the late 1830s, and Lundbye himself produced a number of romantic landscape paintings there. Ring paid homage to Lundbye by painting the bench overlooking Lake Arressø where, according to local legend, Lundbye used to sit and paint [2]. The homage to Lundbye was a salute by Ring to a bygone age and a longing for pure stillness in art.
L. A. Ring is one of Denmark's most important 19th century painters, who developed a wholly idiosyncratic visual language in which realism and symbolism subtly interact. By the time he died, he had notched up considerable succes in his artistic career and had participated in many international exhibitions. Success was not preordained, however. Ring had struggled initially to establish himself as an artist: he had found it difficult to adapt to the strictures of the official curriculum at Copenhagen's Academy. He dropped out and lived a hand-to-mouth existence for much of the 1870s, until he regained a sense of direction after enrolling at the "free" study school of P.S. Krøyer, Denmark's leading impressionist. He achieved modest success in 1882, when he was first allowed to participate in the prestigious Charlottenborg exhibition. His subsequent travels to France, Belgium and the Netherlands allowed him to become more closely acquainted with French realism, with art by Millet, Bastien-Lepage and Raffaëlli striking a particular chord.
Although Ring was quietly forgotten after his death in 1933, in recent years his art has been rediscovered. Leading international museums have purchased work by the artist in the last four years, including The National Gallery, London; the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio and the Currier Museum of Art, New Hampshire.
_________________________________
1. Ordrupgaard (ed), L.A. Ring. Mellem Lys og mørke, exh.cat., Ordrupgaard 2016, pp. 104/5.
2. "Lundbye's bench by Lake Arresø", 1899, oil on canvas, 43,5 x 56 cm, Ordrupgaard Museum, Denmark.
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