Harald Moltke
Harald Viggo Graf Moltke (born December 14, 1871 in Helsingør ; † June 24, 1960 in Frederiksborg ) was a Danish portrait and landscape painter , draftsman , polar explorer, as well as porcelain and postage stamp artist .
Life
Harald Moltke was the second of four children born to his parents Oscar and Karen Marie nee. Jensen. In the 1870s the family moved to Yorkville , North Carolina , USA . After the father's death on November 12, 1882, the family returned to Denmark . In 1889 Harald began studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, which he graduated in 1893. In 1894 he exhibited his works for the first time in the autumn exhibition of the Kunsthalle Charlottenborg .
In 1898 Harald Moltke undertook his first expedition together with the geologist Knud Johannes Vogelius Steenstrup and the botanist Morten Pedersen Porsild (1872-1956) to Disko Bay on the west coast of Greenland . From 1899 to 1900 the Danish Meteorological Institute undertook an expedition to Iceland under the direction of its director Adam Paulsen . With the help of two spectrographs specially constructed for the expedition, they wanted to explore the aurora borealis. However, since no pictures of the northern lights could be made with the photographic device of the time, a visual artist was required to capture them. Harald Moltke took part in this expedition, as well as the one to Utsjoki in Finland in 1900/1901, which was also about the northern lights. Moltke's Northern Lights images from Iceland and Finland are kept in the Danish Meteorological Institute, but are not accessible to the public.
From 1902 to 1904 Moltke took part under Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen together with Knud Rasmussen in the Greenland Literary Expedition on the northwest coast of Greenland. The aim of the expedition, which led across Melville Bay to Cape York , was to capture the myths and legends of the polar skimos and to publish them together with illustrations in a large work about Greenland. During this expedition Moltke fell seriously ill and for a long time hovered between life and death. He retained a paralysis that would hamper his work for the rest of his life. During his convalescence he finished his main work, the portraits of the Inuit of Cape York. He also portrayed his companions.
From 1907 to 1908 Moltke worked for the Royal Danish Porcelain Manufactory , for which he designed three plates to commemorate the Danmark expedition to the north-east coast of Greenland from 1906 to 1908, during which the researchers Niels Peter Høeg-Hagen , Mylius-Erichsen and Jørgen Brønlund around Life came - he took up the motif again in 1933 for a commemorative medal. He then worked for the porcelain manufacturer Bing & Grøndahl, for which he designed the annual plates in 1909 and 1910, the latter with the theme “Nordpolens Erobring” (conquering the North Pole).
In 1930 he designed a poster for the anti-tuberculosis campaign in Greenland, and later the first two postage stamps from Greenland.
Moltke's artistic work can be found in the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen, in the Frederiksborg National History Museum in Hillerød and in the Kronborg Museum in Helsingør. In Greenland, several place names are reminiscent of Harald Moltke, for example on Qeqertarsuaq (Disko Island) the Harald Moltke Dal (Harald Moltke Valley) and Moltkes Glacier, in the northwest, south of Qaanaaq , the Harald Moltke Bræ (Harald Moltke Glacier) with the subsequent Moltke Sø (Moltkesee), Cape Harald Moltke on the Independence Fjord in the northeast, south of it the Moltke Nunatak protruding from the inland ice and finally Cape Moltke on the south east coast.
literature
- Count Harald Moltke: Livsrejsen; Barndom, Ungdom Ekspeditionerne. 1936 (life journey, childhood, youth, expeditions).
- Count Harald Moltke: Den lykkelige Rejse; Ægteskab, Rejser, Arbejde. 1941 (The happy journey, marriage, traveling, working).
- Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, Harald Moltke: Grønland: illustreret skildring af den danske literære Grønlandsekspeditions Rejser i Melvillebugten… 1903–1904. 1906 (Greenland: illustrated description of the Danish literary expeditions in Melville Bay… 1903–1904).
- Thomas Lautz: The tragedy in the ice. The Danmark expedition under Mylius-Erichsen. In: Geldgeschichtliche Nachrichten 165, Jan. 1995, p. 21 ff. (Medal and plate).
Web links
- Bjarne Jørnæs: Harald Moltke in Dansk biografisk leksikon (Danish)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Moltke, Harald |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Moltke, Harald Viggo Graf (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Danish painter, draftsman, stamp artist and Greenland explorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 14, 1871 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Elsinore |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 24, 1960 |
| Place of death | Frederiksborg |