Carl Rasmussen

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Carl Rasmussen (1869)

Jens Erik Carl Rasmussen (born August 31, 1841 in Ærøskøbing ; † October 1, 1893 in the Atlantic between Orkney and Shetland ) was a Danish painter who was best known as a marine painter and for his views of Greenland . He is considered to be the first artist to capture Inuit culture and the harsh nature of Greenlandic nature in his works.

Life

Jens Erik Carl Rasmussen was born in 1841 as the son of a master tailor in Ærøskøbing in southern Denmark . After his confirmation , he began training as a tricot tailor in Copenhagen . From 1860 he received drawing lessons from the architect Hans J. Holm and from the landscape and animal painter Didrik Frisch . In order to get money, he hired himself as a cabin boy with his uncle for a summer in 1861 and traveled to Scotland in this way . After further lessons in projection and perspective at the Technical Institute in Copenhagen, he attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts for four years . He also painted two winters with Carl Frederik Aagaard and made his debut in 1863 with an exhibition at Charlottenborg Palace .

Winter Time in Greenland was created in 1875 as one of the first artistic depictions of Greenland culture.

From 1870 to 1871 he made a long trip to Greenland , on which numerous sketches for later paintings were made. Some of the resulting works were sold to galleries, earning him popularity as a Greenland painter. A scholarship from the Art Academy enabled him to travel through Europe in 1872, which took him through the Netherlands , Belgium and Italy and to galleries in Paris , Dresden and Berlin and to the 1873 World's Fair in Vienna . In 1874 he married his wife Anna Aegidia (1852–1931) in Copenhagen, with whom he settled in Marstal . After commissions in England and Paris, the deeply believer went through a religious crisis in 1878, during which he made a pilgrimage to Palestine and from which some of the critically disdained works emerged.

In the last years of his life, Rasmussen returned to marine painting. His last trip took him to Greenland again in 1893. On the way back, between Orkney and Shetland , he fell off board the merchant brigg Peru and drowned. The circumstances of his death have never been clarified, but the artist's carelessness is suspected while he was painting a lake scene on the quarterdeck .

plant

Rasmussen's first works were created during his time as a cabin boy and paved the way for him to pursue a career as a marine painter. A large part of his oil paintings are therefore dedicated to coastal landscapes and scenes on the open sea. He did pioneering work in the 1870s with his illustrations of arctic nature and the everyday life of the Inuit , which were always characterized by a special realism and empathy . His painting En omkommet grønlænder bæres hjem (A dead Greenlander is carried home) (1871) is considered the first representation of death in modern Danish painting. In addition, the deeply religious Rasmussen, inspired by Carl Bloch , painted some biblical scenes, which he made as an altar painter, among other things. His Greenland paintings are now owned by the Nivågård Gallery and the Statens Museum for Kunst . The National Maritime Museum and the Art Museum in Ribe have other works, including numerous drawings .

  • Wrecked yacht in distress

  • Sailboats at the harbor in stormy weather

  • Svendborgsund on a calm summer day

  • Summer on the Greenland coast around the year 1000

  • Father and son pull in the nets

  • Dancing Greenlanders

  • Warship at sea

Exhibitions

During Rasmussen's lifetime, many of his works were exhibited in Charlottenborg Palace.
  • 1873: World Exhibition in Vienna
  • 1875: The Maritime Picture Gallery, London
  • 1878: Paris
  • 1882: Art forums
  • 1883: North. Kunstudst. (Nordic Art Exhibition) , Copenhagen
  • 1893: Chicago
  • 1901: Raadhusudst. (City Hall Exhibition) , Copenhagen
  • 1907: Works by Danish painters , Guildhall , London
  • 1921: Grønlandsudst. (Greenland Exhibition) , Copenhagen
  • 1922: Dansk Lægeportrætter (Danish Medical Portraits) , Copenhagen

Works (selection)

Since some paintings are not precisely dated, the year of the first exhibition is given in some cases.

painting

  • 1863: Søstykke, nordvest for Skagen (seascape, northwest of Skagen)
  • 1869: Stranden ved Faxe, bygevejr (The beach of Faxe, gusty weather)
  • 1869: Ribe set vestfra (Ribe from the west)
  • 1870: Marstaljagt havarerer i hårdt vejr (Marstalwreck hunts in bad weather)
  • 1871: En omkommet grønlænder bæres hjem (A dead Greenlander is carried home)
  • 1871: Udsigt fra Reden mod Kbh., Dampslæbebåd med sejlskib (view from the nest towards Copenhagen, steam tug with sailing ship)
  • 1872: Midnatsstemning ved den grønlandske kyst (midnight mood on the Greenland coast)
  • 1872: De indfødte danser fangedansen (The natives dance)
  • 1875: Ved vintertid i Grønland (winter time in Greenland)
  • 1875: Erik den Røde opdager Grønland (Erik the Red discovers Greenland)
  • 1877: Hans Egede bedende (Hans Egede praying)
  • 1877: Jesus sover på Genezareth sø (Jesus sleeps on the Sea of ​​Galilee)
  • 1877: Kgl. Grønl. Handels brig Peru (Royal Greenland Merchant Brig Peru)
  • 1878: Skibe som tomorrow efter storm clearer lands for sig (ships the morning after the storm before landing)
  • 1881: To skibe med rebede sejl i hårdt vejr (Two ships with reefed sails in bad weather)
  • 1881: En grønlandsk kateket (A Greenlandic catechist)
  • 1883: Forårsdag på Godthåbsfjorde (spring in the fjord of Godthåb)
  • 1883: Parti fra Svendborgsund (scene from Svendsborgsund)
  • 1885: Skonnertbrig Dorthea i rum sø (The Schonerbrigg Dorthea on the high seas)
  • 1887: Hollandske fiskefartøjer går ud gennem brændingen (Dutch fishing trawlers fight the surf)

Altar paintings

  • 1881: Kristus stiller stormen (Christ in the Storm) , church in Marstal
  • 1881: Jesu forklarelse på bjerget (Jesus Transfiguration of the Lord) , church on Strynø
  • 1890: Jesus vandrer på søen (Jesus walks across the lake) , church on Anholt

literature

  • Helle & Benno Blæsild: Marinemaleren Jens Erik Carl Rasmussen (1841-1893) , biography (= scrifter from Svendborg & Omegns Museum, Volume 33), Svendborg og Omegns Museum, Svendborg 1993, ISBN 87-87769-58-1 (Danish).
  • Carsten Jensen : Rasmussen's last trip. Roman (Original Danish title: Sidste reje , translated by Ulrich Sonnenberg). Knaus, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-8135-0331-9 / ISBN 978-3-641-04743-6 ( eBook ).

Web links

Commons : Carl Rasmussen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Sigurd Schultz: Carl Rasmussen (Dansk Biografisk Leksikon). Gyldendal , accessed March 27, 2017 (Danish).
  2. ↑ a b c Hanne Poulsen: Artist: JEC Rasmussen. Kunstindeks Danmark & ​​Weilbachs Kunstnerleksikon, accessed on March 27, 2017 (Danish).
personal data
SURNAME Rasmussen, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rasmussen, Jens Erik Carl (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish painter
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1841
PLACE OF BIRTH Ærøskøbing
DATE OF DEATH October 1, 1893
Place of death Atlantic