Aage Bertelsen

Aage Bertelsen during the Danmark Expedition 1906–1908

Aage Bertelsen (born September 28, 1873 in Næstved , † September 9, 1945 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish painter. He took part as a painter and illustrator on the Danmark Expedition (1906–1908) to northeast Greenland.

Youth and education

Aage Bertelsen was born in Næstved as the son of the painter Rudolf Wilhelm Waldemar Bertelsen (1828–1921), who taught drawing and art at Herlufsholm boarding school in Næstved. The young Aage experienced a cosmopolitan artist household, in which many Danish painters were visiting and often stayed for longer periods, such as Lauritz Andersen Ring . Encouraged and supported by this, also from his father, Bertelsen began drawing and painting at an early age. From 1892 to 1896 he attended the "Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler" in Copenhagen. There he was a student in Kristian Zahrtmann's class , who accompanied him on a trip to Italy in 1897. An academy scholarship made it possible to visit Rome, Naples and Venice. Stays in Germany, France, Norway and Sweden followed.

The Danmark Expedition 1906–1908

Bertelsen painting in the Gnipa Cave during the 1906–1908 expedition

Aage Bertelsen and Achton Friis accompanied the expedition to northeast Greenland, half financed by the Kingdom of Denmark, as painters and draftsmen. 28 participants (among them the German Alfred Wegener ) and over 70 dogs drove with the steam-assisted sailing ship Danmark under the direction of Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen in previously unexplored territory. They used dog sleds in a particularly well-organized manner to advance far north. Bertelsen created a large number of small color oil and watercolor pictures that show the Greenland landscape at different times of the year. Several of his pictures illustrate the book Im Grönlandeis mit Mylius-Erichsen by Achton Friis, published in 1910 , which describes the harsh conditions during the expedition in the Greenland winter, the cohesion of the men and the death of the leader Mylius-Erichsen and two other expedition members.

On a sleigh ride in May 1907, Bertelsen, Johan Peter Koch and their dog sled driver Tobias Gabrielsen (1878–1945) said they saw an island from Nordostrundingen , which was later also observed by other researchers such as Lauge Koch , Peter Freuchen and Iwan Papanin , and as a phantom island Fata-Morgana-Land was a mystery for a long time. However, it could not be found in subsequent searches.

The geographical names Aage-Bertelsen-Gletscher and Kap Aage Bertelsen remind of Bertelsen's participation in the Danmark-Expedition.

The years after the expedition

Aage Bertelsen, flowers on a river

Bertelsen and Friis exhibited their Greenland pictures in 1908 in Copenhagen in “Den Frie Udstilling” and then in Aarhus and Odense .

In 1908 Bertelsen married Karen Dorothea Schmidt (* 1880 in Flensburg , † 1961 in Birkerød , DK). They chose Birkerød as the center of their life. In 1912 they had a son, Erik Bertelsen, who took part in Knut Rasmussen's 7th Thule expedition in 1933 and later became director of fisheries and port affairs in Denmark.

In addition to the Greenland pictures, Bertelsen became known as the painter of light-flooded spring forests. Many of his pictures show rural Denmark, fields, meadows, rivers and barren farmsteads in a late impressionist painting style. The Artnet compilation of the last pictures traded at auctions gives a good overview.

In 1924 he was a co-founder of the association “Art against Goods”, which he co-led until his death. In 1945 Bertelsen died in Copenhagen and was buried in Birkerød.

In 1997, Ole Ventegodt portrayed the two and a half years in Greenland in his book “Den sidste Brik”.

As part of a “100-year artistic dialogue”, the Danish painter Per Kirkeby traveled in 2009 in the footsteps of Bertelsen and Friis to north-east Greenland in order to work artistically. The resulting watercolors and etchings were exhibited together with works by Bertelsen and Friis in the Odder Museum in 2011 .

The diaries of Bertelsen and Friis are the focus of the book Vi kommer hjem igen! from 2015. The authors Mette Karlsson and Søren Frandsen present selected entries by the artists. The book shows many paintings and drawings by both artists that were created during the expedition.

Exhibitions

October exhibition 1893 (Zahrtmann student); Charlottenborg Art Gallery 1899–1903; Kleis 1901; The frie Udst. 1904-46; March exhibition 1905; The frie Udst. 1908 (Works from Greenland, together with Achton Friis), exhibition was also shown in Århus, Odense, Berlin and in the Royal Geographical Society, London 1910; Art forums. Kbh. 1910 (with his father). Solo exhibitions: Chr. Larsen, Kbh. 1917, 1920; Bach, Gl.Strand 1925, 1934, 1943 (all retrosp.), And 1948 (works from the estate); The frie Udst. 1946 (retrospective); Odder Museum 2011.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen: Kunstindeks Danmark & ​​Weilbachs kunstnerleksikon. Retrieved June 8, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Mette Karlsson: Vi kommer hjem igen! Dagligliv and drama. Danmark-Ekspedionen til Nordøstgrønland 1906-08 . ISBN 978-87-02-11261-0 .
3. ↑ Merete Bodelsen: Aage Bertelsen . In: Svend Cedergreen Bech , Svend Dahl (eds.): Dansk biografisk leksikon . Founded by Carl Frederik Bricka , continued by Povl Engelstoft. 3. Edition. tape 3 : Brüggeman – Dolmer . Gyldendal, Copenhagen 1979, ISBN 87-01-77383-6 (Danish, biografiskleksikon.lex.dk ).
4. ↑ Reinhard Krause, Jörn Thiede: 150 years of German polar research and the development of Greenland . In: Polar Research . tape 86 , no. 2 , 2017, p. 135-144 , doi : 10.2312 / polar research . 86.2.135 .
5. ↑ Achton Friis: In the Greenland Ice Sheet with Mylius-Erichsen . Otto Spamer, Leipzig 1910.
6. ^ G. Amdrup : Report on the Danmark Expedition to the North-East Coast of Greenland 1906-1908 . In: Meddelelser om Grønland 41, 1913, p. 124 (English)
7. ↑ Fata Morgana Lands . In: Anthony K. Higgins: Exploration history and place names of northern East Greenland. (= Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin 21, 2010). Copenhagen 2010, ISBN 978-87-7871-292-9 (English), accessed June 13, 2017
8. ^ Aage Bertelsen Glacier . In: Anthony K. Higgins: Exploration history and place names of northern East Greenland. (= Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin 21, 2010). Copenhagen 2010, ISBN 978-87-7871-292-9 (English), accessed June 13, 2017
9. ↑ Chapter Aage Bertelsen . In: Anthony K. Higgins: Exploration history and place names of northern East Greenland. (= Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin 21, 2010). Copenhagen 2010, ISBN 978-87-7871-292-9 (English), accessed June 13, 2017
10. ↑ Thule Expeditions . In: Academic dictionaries and encyclopedias . ( universal_lexikon.deacademic.com [accessed June 8, 2017]).
11. ↑ Vibeke Maarssø: Hvis des kann more Dem, saa… Book on Demand, 2010.
12. ↑ Aage Bertelsen Auction Results - Aage Bertelsen on artnet. Retrieved June 8, 2017 . 
13. ^ Aage Bertelsen. Retrieved June 12, 2017 . 
14. ^ Arktisk Institut (Ed.): Den sidste brik. Mylius-Erichsens Danmark-ekspedition til Nordøst-Grønland 1906–1908 . Gyldendal, Copenhagen 1998, ISBN 87-00-29008-4 .
15. ↑ Per Kirkeby udstiller på Odder Museum. (No longer available online.) November 21, 2011, formerly in the original ; accessed on June 11, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
16. ↑ Boganmeldelse: Vi kommer hjem igen! Af Søren Frandsen and Mette Karlsson . In: Erik B. Jørgensen, eventyrer, foredragsholder, forfatter and guide . March 22, 2017 ( komud.dk [accessed June 8, 2017]).
17. ↑ Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen: Kunstindeks Danmark & ​​Weilbachs kunstnerleksikon. Retrieved June 9, 2017 .