October 2022 – my daily art display

Holger Drachmann

The Artist, the Poet, the Lover of Women.

The subject of this week’s blog is the nineteenth century Danish poet, dramatist and painter Holger Drachmann. Holger Henrik Herholdt Drachmann was born on October 9^th, 1846 in Copenhagen. He was the son of Andreas Drachmann and his wife Vilhelmine. Holger was one of five children, having an older sister, Erna and three younger sisters, Mimi, Johanne and Harriet.

His father. Andreas, initially trained as a barber whilst studying for his medical exams. In 1831 he was an assistant to a surgeon in the Danish navy and eventually passed his exams to become a surgeon in 1836. He left the navy in 1845 and became a physician at Langgaard’s orthopaedic institute and in 1859 he founded the first institute of medical gymnastics in Copenhagen.

*Coastal party north of Årsdale, by Holger Drachmann (1869.)*

In March 1857, when Holger was ten years old, his mother Vilhelmine died. She was just thirty-six years old. Once he completed his schooling in 1865 he went to University where he remained for three years. He then transferred to the Academy of Fine Arts and studied under Carl Frederik Sørensen, a noted marine painter and soon Holger developed a love for that painting genre. Art was a great love of Holger but around this time he developed another love, a love of literature.

*View of the island of Maïre west of the Goudes district, Marseille by Holger Drachmann*

This painting above is thought to have been painted by Holger during his voyage around the Mediterranean in 1867.

The beauty and ferocity of the sea is captured in Drachmann’s painting entitled Rocky Coast. It depicts the unstoppable waves of the blue-green sea crashing violently against a towering rock formation in the foreground of the painting. To the left, we see heavy grey storm clouds. It is a depiction which is devoid of figures and one’s focus is simply concentrating on the violent force of nature. There is nothing noted as to the location of the scene but during his lifetime he visited many places, such as the Orkney Isles, and Norway, with their rocky coasts and archipelagos or it could have been locations in Newfoundland or Nova Scotia, places he visited during his long trip to North America.

*Våde ovn, Bornholm. by Holger Drachmann*

To further his interest in marine painting, Holger went to stay on the island of Bornholm. This Danish island is located in the Baltic Sea, to the east of mainland Denmark, and south of Sweden. It was here he painted a number of seascapes. One of his Bornholm paintings depicted Vade Ovn, a notable rock or group of rocks attached to the underlying bedrock. It is a grotto, part of the area known as Helligdomsklipperne.

A wreck hut on Skagen’s beach by Holger Drachmann

The Skagen artists’ colony is now as famous as the ones at Barbizon or Newlyn and Holger Drachmann was an important figure in the history of the Skagen artists’ colony, for it was he, who first arrived there in 1872 together with Norwegian Frits Thaulow, and he then persuaded many artists to go there with him during the following years. He fell in love with the area with its breath-taking nature and the simple life it afforded people.

View from Knippelsbro with the Sugar Factory by Holger Drachmann

*Fishing boats in Stormy Weather by Holger Drachmann*

Besides his love of painting and fame as an artist, Holger Drachmann had two other great loves. He had the love of literature and poetry and was a renowned poet. He was part of the Scandinavian Modern Breakthrough Movement which was a movement of naturalism and which debated the literature of Scandinavia, which replaced romanticism near the end of the 19th century.

Around 1870, Drachmann became motivated by the writings of the Danish critic and scholar Georg Brandes, who had greatly influenced Scandinavian and European literature. It was a time when art became secondary to literature in Drachmann’s life. He had travelled quite extensively around England, Scotland, France Spain and Italy and had started a habit of sending accounts of his travels to the Danish newspapers.

Drachmann made his debut in 1872 as a prose writer with the collection With Coal and ChalkIn and that same year he had a book of his poems entitled Digte (Poems) published. He also joined the group of young Radical writers who were also followers of Brandes. For Drachmann it was a time of contemplation and soul searching as to whether painting or writing would be his prime driving force. Drachmann established his position as the greatest poet of the Danish modern movement of his time with such collections as Dæmpede Melodier (1875; “Muted Melodies”), Sange ved Havet (“Songs by the Sea”) and Venezia (both 1877), and Ranker og Roser (1879; “Weeds and Roses”). The prose Derovre fra Grænsen (1877; “From Over the Border”) and the verse fairy tale Prinsessen og det Halve Kongerige (1878; “The Princess and Half the Kingdom”), demonstrated a patriotic and romantic trend that brought him into conflict with the Brandes group. Drachmann was one of the most popular Danish poets of modern time though much of his work is now forgotten. He unites modern rebellionist attitudes and a really romantic view of women and history.

*Kristian Zahrtmann – Portrait of Vilhelmine Erichsen (1867)*

Earlier I said that Drachmann had two great loves other than his art. He loved writing and poetry as I have just recorded but his other great love was women !

Whilst on the island of Bornholm in 1869, Holger Drachmann met his first wife Vilhelmine Charlotte Erichsen, She had been a good friend and muse for both Drachmann and another artist, Kristian Zahrtmann who was also living on Bornholm and who had painted her portrait when she was fourteen-years-old. Zahrtmann was besotted with the young girl who modelled for him. In a letter in 1868 to his friend and fellow artist August Jerndorff , he wrote:

“…I have had a young girl of mine of mine painting who interests me greatly. An adorable child – she is 16 years old – cannot be seen; After all, she is at an unfortunate age for most people, to which is added an extraordinary height and width, a short neck and stooped posture, but these are flaws that only all the more accentuate her beauty. A more regular face is unthinkable- – Her hair and eyes are almost black, her mouth bulging, and the pale yellow color, with its vexing and the utterly regular, narrow eyebrows, becomes so southern and melancholic dreamy that I can be so seized by it that the brush shakes in my hand. She herself does not know that she is beautiful, on the contrary, I think that she considers the yellow-laden color hideous, and at all she knows very little, both of knowledge and of what life is and gives…”

Marie Henriques (on the left) and Eva Drachmann painting, probably at the Art School for Women in Copenhagen, (c.1900)

But three years later, in 1869, when she was seventeen, Vilhelmine fell in love with twenty-three-year-old Drachmann and they got engaged. Two years later, on November 3^rd 1871 Holger and nineteen-year-old Vilhelmine married in Gentofte Sogn, København. To be able to marry Vilhelmine had to lie about her age, declaring that she was twenty-one. Holger was twenty-five years old and so did not need her parents’ permission for the marriage. On November 4^th 1874 they had a daughter, Eva, but at the end of that year, they separated and finally divorced in 1878. It was a bad-tempered divorce and in a fit of rage Vilhelmine destroyed all correspondence and manuscripts from Holger that she possessed. Eva Drachmann wrote about her mother and father in her 1953 book Vilhelmine, my mother:

“…They divorced after 4 years of marriage. As the poet’s muse, Vilhelmine had entered into a cohabitation of whose seriousness and difficulties none of them had the slightest concept. Of the two, she was the largest child. She didn’t have time to grow up before it was all over. As an old woman, she reflected on how fateful the disaster came………. After all, in childhood and growing up, she had done nothing useful – nothing but dream…”

Eva Drachmann married for the first time in 1899 and the ceremony was held in a local manor house as the parish priest of the local Flade Church, refused to marry the couple in the parish church, citing Eve’s father’s godless lifestyle.

Polly Culmsee

Around 1866, three years before he met his first wife, Vilhelmine, Holger Drachmann had struck up a friendship with Valdemar Culmsee, the son of Frederick Culmsee, the owner of the Havreholm Paper Mill on the Danish island of Zealand. It was during a visit to their home in 1866 that he met Emmy Culmsee, Valdemar’s twelve-year-old sister and her older sister Polly who was sixteen. Polly had later married Charles Thalbitzer and had two children with him but around the time Holger Drachmann and his wife had separated in 1874 she had a relationship with Holger and had his child, Agnes Gerda. Polly eventually divorced her husband and she and Holger left Denmark for Sweden because of the social scandal they had created in Copenhagen. They intended to be married in Paris when Drachmann was legally divorced from his wife. Now living in the Swedish town of Lund, Polly fell ill and Drachmann took her to a local doctor, Alphons Theorin, and sought his help with the care of Polly. Bizarrely, Polly transferred her affection from Holger to the doctor who in turn fell passionately in love with his patient which created yet another scandal as the doctor abandoned his wife and their three children and ran off with Polly to the central Swedish town of Sveg, where he managed to arrange a position as a provincial doctor.

Emmy Culmsee

The bizarre story of Holger Drachmann love life does not end there. Polly’s younger sister Emmy had moved with her parents to Kristiania, where she stayed until she travelled to Hamburg in 1876 to study languages and it was in this German city that she once again met Holger. He told her he was devastated by a relationship break-up and she was very comforting. However he failed to impart to her that the relationship had been with her married sister, Polly. On finding out about the involvement of her sister she broke off with Holger and settled into a life as a German language teacher. However, in 1878 whilst on holiday in Hamburg, out of the blue, she received a call from Copenhagen from Holger Drachmann’s married sister Erna Juel-Hansen. She told Emmy that Holger had suffered a breakdown when Polly left him. Emmy went to Copenhagen and cared for Holger and nursed him back to full health. Emmy and Holger married and they adopted his and Polly’s daughter, Agnes Gerda. Emmy and Holger went on to have four more children of their own.

Amanda Jensine Nielsen (Edith)

Sadly in 1887 Holger, for whatever reason, began an affair with Amanda Jensine Nielsen a cabaret artist in Copenhagen, despite the fact that he was married and twice her age. He and Amanda became lovers and he would refer to her as Edith. He even mentioned her in his 1890 novel Forskrevet, a depiction of Denmark in 1880 and the then political dispute between Right and Left, as well as the cultural dispute between citizen and bohemian

Holger Drachmann by Peder Severin Kroyer

Eventually Holger grew tired of his affair with Edith and moved on to another young actress. His many scandalous affairs with his “muses” were often the fuel of his inspiration. On his deathbed he said that his two biggest muses were Vilhelmine and Edith.

Drachmanns Hus in Skagen

Holger Drachmann died in Copenhagen on January 14^th 1908, aged 61. He is buried in the sand dunes at Grenen, near Skagen and following his death his Skagen home, Drachmanns Hus, became a museum.

Rudolph von Alt

The focus of my blog today is to look at the life and work of the nineteenth century Austrian painter Rudolph Ritter von Alt. The word “Ritter”is used as a title of nobility in German-speaking areas. It translates approximately to the British designation “Sir”, denoting a Knight. It is not a first or middle name of the person. The artist was born Rudolph Alt and used the title of a Ritter after he gained nobility in 1889.

*View from the Artist’s Studio in Alservorstadt toward Dornbach by Jakob Alt (1836)*

Rudolph was born in Vienna on August 28^th 1812. His father, Jakob Alt, the son of a carpenter, was a German landscape painter and lithographer who was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1789 where he received his first artistic tuition and later moved to Vienna where he enrolled at the city’s Academy of Fine Arts. Jakob Alt travelled through Austria and Italy, hiking through the Austrian Alps, all the while painting scenes of beauty. He also depicted many scenes of the neighbourhood along the River Danube and in the city of Vienna.

*Room of Archduke Ludwig Victor in the Hofburg, Vienna by Franz Alt (1861)*

Rudolph Alt had a younger brother, Franz, who was nine years his junior and who also became a famed Austrian landscape painter. His work can be seen in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cooper Hewitt Museum (Smithsonian), the Albertina Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest and other international collections.

*The Dachstein Mountain from Lower Lake Gosau by Rudolphe von Alt* *(1838)*

Rudolphe, like his father before him, went on many hiking-trips through the Austrian Alps and northern Italy and fell in love with the spectacular landscapes he witnessed.

*View of the Strada Nuova against the Giardini Pubblici in Venice by Rudolph von Alt (1834)*

In 1833, he travelled to Venice where he pictorially recorded his visit. He was inspired by the city of Venice and took the opportunity to visit neighbouring areas as well as the Italian capital, where he completed a number of architectural paintings

*The Capitol in Rome by Rudolphe von Alt (1835)*

Rudolphe von Alt was a talented watercolourist and during his journeys around Italy he completed many watercolours featuring various Italian cities.

*Port of Santa Lucia, Naples by Rudolphe von Alt (1935)*

In 1830, five years before he took the throne, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria started to develop a plan which entailed the commissioning of paintings depicting the most beautiful views of the Austrian Empire. Jakob Alt, and his eldest son, Rudolf were two of the commissioned artists and between them they painted about one hundred and seventy of the three hundred completed works. The project came to an end in 1849 a year after Ferdinand abdicated.

*The Josef square in Vienna by Rudolphe von Alt (1831)*

*The St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna by Rudolphe von Alt (1831)*

*View of Salzburg by Rudolpe von Alt (1831)*

*Der Hohe Markt in Wien by Rudolphe von Alt (1836)*

Rudolphe’s watercolour depictions of interiors of wealthy patrons’ residences brought him more recognition from the Austrian public

*Interior at Palais Windischgrätz in Renngasse in Vienna by Rudolphe von Alt (1848)*

*Salon in the Apartment of Count Lanckoroński in Vienna by Rudolphe von Alt (1881)*

*The library in the Palais Dumba by Rudolphe von Alt (1877)*

The Blue Drawing Room at the Valtice Palace by Rudolphe von Alt (1845)

The grandeur of the interior of many palaces was captured by Rudolphe in his magnificent watercolour paintings. Originally the Gothic Valtice palace was founded in the 12th century by the bishops of Passau and in 1530 Valtice became the place of residence of the princely family of Liechtenstein, one of the wealthiest families in Europe.

*Drawing Room at the Rasumofsky Palace by Rudolphe von Alt (1836)*

A less formal room was captured by Rudolphe von Alt in his 1836 watercolour entitled Drawing Room at the Rasumofsky Palace. The palace was commissioned by Prince Andrey Razumovsky as a Neoclassic embassy which would be worthy of the representative of the Russian Tsar, Alexander I. It was built at the prince’s own expense on Landstraße, close to the centre of Vienna. Razumovsky then filled the rooms of the palace with antiquities and modern works of art.

*The Staircase of the State Opera Thatre, Budapest by Rudolphe von Alt (1873)*

A large number of Rudolphe von Alt’s paintings are held in the Princely House of Liechtenstein collections in Vaduz, Liechtenstein and Vienna. The Princely House of Liechtenstein is one of the oldest noble lineages in Europe being first mentioned in the twelfth century. The Princely House of Liechtenstein is one of the oldest still extant noble lineages in Europe. The first documented bearer of this name was a Hugo von Liechtenstein, mentioned in archival sources dating to between 1120 and 1143.

*View from the Klausen Valley to Modling Castle by Rudolphe von Alt (1827)*

The family’s art collection had its beginnings in the sixteenth century and has been influenced over time by the varying interests of individual princes. The collection has been assembled over several centuries, and now the Collections of the Prince von und zu Liechtenstein are one of the most important private art collections in the world, containing around 1,600 paintings with masterpieces ranging from the early Renaissance to the second half of the nineteenth century, including works by Lukas Cranach the Elder, Quentin Massys, Raphael, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Friedrich von Amerling and Hans Makart and today’s artist, Rudolphe von Alt,

*Organ Base by Master Anton Pilgram in St Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna by Rudolphe von Alt (1876)*

Alt demonstrated a remarkable talent for expressing certain peculiarities in nature. He managed to paint nature authentically by focusing on the different hues of sky, the colour-tone of the air and the vegetation.

*Ansicht von Jägerndorf mit ländlicher Staffage* by Rudolphe von Alt

His later works were more Impressionistic in style but maybe above all von Alt will be remembered for his exquisite architectural and indoor scenes, genres that made him famous in Vienna.

Rudolphe Ritter von Alt died in Vienna on March 12th 1905, aged 92. Most of his paintings are held by various museums in Vienna.

Carl and Karin Larsson. Part 2.

*Karin Larsson with her firstchild, Suzanne (1885)*

Carl and Karin Larsson married in late 1882 and in 1884 their first child, Suzanne was born. Their second child, a son Ulf, was born in 1887 but sadly died when he was eighteen. In all, Carl and Karin had eight children. After Ulf came Pontus in 1888, Lisbeth in 1891, Brita in 1893, Mats in 1894 but he died aged just two months, Kersti in 1896 and finally Esbjörn in 1900. It is quite obvious that Karin’s time was taken with the upbringing of their children.

In 1888 the couple returned to Sweden with their two children and on deciding to settle permanently in Sweden Karin’s father, Adolf Bergöö, gave them a wooden cottage in the countryside of central Sweden, which had belonged to relatives. The house named Lilla Hyttnäs, was situated in the town of Sundborn, in Falun Municipality, 250 kilometres north-west of Stockholm.

Carl remembered his first visit to the cottage accompanied by his father-in-law and in his 1899 book, Ett Hem (A Home) he wrote:

“…The cottage stood right on a bend in the Sundborn River, just where it gets a smidgeon wider. Everything inside was spick and span, the furniture was simple, but old fashioned and robust, handed down by their parents, who had lived in the vicinity. While I was here, I experienced an indescribably delightful feeling of seclusion from the hustle and bustle of the world, which I have only experienced once before (and that was in a village in the French countryside). When my Father in law suggested buying me a small property in the same village, I declined, saying that only something resembling this little idyll would suit an artist…”

Lilla Hyttnäs soon became Carl and Karin’s mutual art project in which their artistic talents found expression in a very modern and personal choice of colour schemes and interior design. The couple favoured bright colours, and filled the rooms with handcrafts, which mirrored the Arts and Crafts Movement which had inspired them. The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that first emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in the British Isles and then spread to the rest of Europe and America.

Karin Larsson was a young mother, but on top of that she was an ambitious woman who although she had stepped back from her painting, she had replaced the canvas with other artistic goals that would see her use needles, thread and silks instead of brushes and paint. She would now concentrate on home furnishings which would brighten up the old cottage. The cottage interior had now taken the place of the canvas. Her great inspiration was William Morris, who was a leader of the English Arts and Crafts movement, and she liked to incorporate foliage designs across her upholstery. Karin’s husband, Carl, created a series of twenty-six watercolours, entitled A Home which depicted the beautiful interior designs of his wife.

The Studio (From “A Home” watercolor series) by Carl Larsson

Karin Larsson spent mch time designing fabrics for their furniture. One example of this is the chair cover (below).

Her beautifully, highly colourful designs were used for bench cushion covers.

*Bench cushion cover designed by Karin Larsson*

The transition from painting to textile art and home furnishings by married females was in those days an acceptable evolution and was not seen as something forced upon them by their husbands. In the work she lovingly put together to create their home she was able to express herself through the medium of textiles, and furniture design.

*Rocking Chair designed by Karin Larsson*

Karin’s life at Lilla Hyttnäs was tiring. She had to cope with the everyday house chores and eight children to manage. Her eighth child, a son, Esbjorn had been born in 1900. However, she still found time to design and weave a large amount of the textiles which she utilised in her home. She also spent time embroidering, and designing clothes for herself and the children. The aprons, known as karinförkläde in Swedish, were worn by her and the other women who worked at the house.

Carl Larsson’s bedroom at Lilla Hyttnäs was a through-room. The door is wide open to the end room where his wife and the smaller children slept. The white four-poster bed with embroidered curtains stands in the middle of the floor. It has several ingenious features, such as a bench, a chamber-pot cupboard and a small, built-in bedside table. Look closely at the background and you will see that this is also a self portrait as we can just observe the artist, looking in a mirror, doing up his collar buttons.

The interiors of the Larsson home were characterised by rural simplicity. Nevertheless, every detail was carefully designed, with influences from England, Scotland and Japan.

The kitchen, which was first and foremost a place for household chores, did not display the same modern interior style and comfort as the rest of the house.

Through Larsson’s paintings and books their house has become one of the most famous artist’s homes in the world. The descendants of Carl and Karin Larsson now own this house and keep it open for tourists each summer from May until October. The rooms of the house featured in many of Carl’s paintings and books.

*Self portrait in New Studio by Carl Larsson*

Besides depictions of their home featuring in his artwork which highlighted Karin as a talented interior designer, Carl featured his wife and children in many of his paintings.

Karin and her first child Suzanne by Carl Larsson (1887)

In 1905 Carl featured his seventh child, eleven-year-old Kersti in his watercolour work.

In his 1890 watercolour it was his third-born child, two-year-old son, Pontus, who featured.

Pontus on the Floor by Carl Larsson (1890)

The Christmas spirit was captured in some of his family portraits.

Carl and Karin’s fifth child, daughter Brita, was depicted as Idun or Iduna, the Norse goddess of Spring and rejuvenation. Norse mythology tells us that Idun was the keeper of the magic apples of immortality, which the gods must eat to preserve their youth. Iduna carried her apples in a box made of ash (called an eski), along with her fruit, and this box served as one of Idun’s major symbols.

*Azalea by Carl Larsson featuring his wife Karin*

Carl Larsson travelled away on a number of occasions leaving the household and his children the sole responsibility of his wife. Karin employed the carpenters and painters needed to transform Lilla Hyttnäs and was the one who made all the decisions with regards its interior. He never underestimated the role she played in their marriage and this was evident when you look at his artwork and read his books.

In his book Ett Hem, there is an amusing watercolour by Carl of his son Pontus sitting rather gloomily on his chair in an empty room. Larsson talked about the depiction saying that he took the idea from the sight of a gloomy little boy who had been sent from the table as he had misbehaved during the family meal and had been left to deliberate on his misbehaviour whilst languishing in the beautiful room. Pontus’ bad behaviour was probably not a factor in this work but his punishment was real, that of having to sit still for such a long period whilst his father sketched the scene ! The depiction is probably more about the room itself and the combination of the striped chair covers and rugs, with the tiles of the fireplace.

The central part of the painting is taken up by the door. The design of which is a mix of irregularity on the lower panel whilst the panel above is a drawing based on a poem by the English Victorian artist and writer Kate Greenaway’s poem: There was an old woman, who lived on a hill and changed by the artist to There was a little woman who lived with Carl Larsson. Above the door we see decorations, and even though it was a classical temple, it is surrounded by leaves.

In many of his paintings featuring the interior of Lilla Hyttnäs and his family, reading was a recurring topic and was probably a means of enhancing the idea that his young family were well educated, unlike himself, during his torrid childhood.

Carl and Karin Larsson’s popularity increased considerably with the progress of colour reproduction technology in the 1890s. The Swedish publishing house Bonnier published books written and illustrated by Carl Larsson and containing full colour reproductions of his watercolours, such as Ett Hem. (A Home).

However, the print runs of these rather expensive art books were small in comparison to those published in 1909 by the German publisher Karl Robert Langewiesche. He had chosen a number of Carl’s watercolours, drawings and text by the artist, which culminated in the publication in 1909 0f Das Haus in der Sonne (The House in the Sun), which became one of the German publishing industry’s best-sellers of the year with forty thousand copies sold in three months, and which required more than forty print runs. Carl and Karin were delighted with the success.

Car Larsson’s 1907 mural Gustav Vasa’s procession into Stockholm, 1523 (7 x 14 metres)
Nationalmuseum Stockholm.

For all his paintings depicting his wife, children and beloved home, all his illustrating work for books and newspapers, he considered his large-scale frescoes as his most important work. He created frescoes for schools, museums and other public buildings. In 1907, Larsson completed his mural of Gustav Vasa’s procession into Stockholm, 1523, which was hung with his other commissioned murals in the National Museum in Stockholm, part of a series of murals which he had been working on since the mid-1890s.

*Midvinterblot (Midwinter Sacrifice) by Carl Larsson (1915)*

In 1915 Carl had just completed his last monumental work, Midvinterblot (Midwinter Sacrifice), which measured 6 x 14 metres (20ft x 46ft). This was yet another fresco commission he had received from the National Museum in Stockholm and this would like several other of his works adorn the walls of the museum. This new fresco painting would be placed on the wall of the hall which led to the central staircase of the museum. The painting, entitled Midvinterblot (Midwinter Sacrifice) depicts a legend from Norse mythology in which the Swedish king Domalde is sacrificed at the Temple of Uppsala in order to avert famine. Larsson was rightly excited with the commission but devastated when the museum rejected the finished work. Larsson was extremely bitter with the museum’s decision. In his autobiography, he wrote:

“…The fate of Midvinterblot broke me! This I admit with a dark anger. And still, it was probably the best thing that could have happened, because my intuition tells me – once again! – that this painting, with all its weaknesses, will one day, when I’m gone, be honoured with a far better placement…”

Later in the book Larsson admitted that the paintings depicting his family and home:

“…became the most immediate and lasting part of my life’s work. For these pictures are of course a very genuine expression of my personality, of my deepest feelings, of all my limitless love for my wife and children…”

The controversial rejection of Larsson’s painting rumbled on well past his death in 1919. Some schools of Swedish artists loved the work whilst others hated it. The painting was never hung in its designated space and the wall remained bare.

In 1987, one artist from the “school of detractors” offered the museum a monumental painting for free, provided it would adorn the empty space but the museum declined the offer. The painting was then sold to a Japanese art collector, Hiroshi Ishizuka, who in 1992, agreed to lend it back to the museum for its major Carl Larsson exhibition. The painting was hung exactly where Larsson had intended. On seeing the giant painting, the public loved it and wanted the museum to buy it from the Japanese owner. With the aid of public and private donations, the museum and the Japanese owner came to an agreed price and in 1997 the painting was purchased by the museum and the painting remained in its “rightful” place and it remains part of the museum collection.

Carl Larsson died on January 22nd 1919 aged 65. His wife Karin died nine years later on February 18th 1928 aged 68.

Carl and Karin Larsson. Part 1.

My blog today focuses on the lives and works of a very talented nineteenth century Swedish couple, Carl and Karin Larsson, a couple whose upbringing was so different.

Carl Olof Larsson was born on May 28^th 1853 in the Stockholm town of Gamla stan, which literally translates to “old town” but is now known as Staden mellan broarna (“The Town between the Bridges”) as its geographical position is an island, Stadtsholman, which is dissected by two bridges, the Centralbron and, the Skeppsbron. Carl was brought up in an impoverished household and by all accounts, he led a wretched childhood. More can be gleaned of Carl’s terrible early existence when you read Renate Puvogel’s 1994 biography of Larsson in which she talks about his and his mother’s terrible existence at the hands of Carl’s father:

“…His mother was thrown out of the house, together with Carl and his brother Johan; after enduring a series of temporary dwellings, the family moved into Grev Magnigränd No. 7 (later No. 5) in what was then Ladugårdsplan, present-day Östermalm…”.

Carl Larsson’s father had changed jobs many times. He worked as a casual labourer, sailed as a stoker on a ship, and during this time he also managed to lose the lease to a nearby mill. Ironically, years later, he was employed at that same mill as a lowly grain carrier. Carl Larsson, in his autobiography. Jag, portrayed his father as a loveless man lacking self-control; he said that he drank, ranted and raved, and incurred the lifelong hatred of his son after once declaring to Carl that he cursed the day that his son was born. In contrast, Carl’s mother worked long hours as a laundress to provide for her family.

In his autobiography, Jag, Larsson wrote about his childhood home in Stockholm’s Old Town . Misery was his overwhelming memory of those early years. He talked about dirt and rats swarming the spaces between mattresses thrown to the floor. Such conditions were conducive to the outbreak of cholera, which broke out in Stockholm in 1866. In his world as a child, the word ‘home’ did not have positive connotations, it meant something rather like a camp where one could not dream of privacy or comfort. Carl related how he often went hungry, and how he was physically drained by having to help with heavy chores such as carrying water, chopping wood and shoveling snow.

*Old Sundborn Church by Carl Larsson (1895)*

His salvation came when he was thirteen-years-old and his teacher at the school for the poor was impressed by Carl’s drawing skills, and advised his mother to have their son apply to the preparatory school of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. He was accepted but the first years there were a trial for the young boy who was both withdrawn, shy and suffered from an inferiority complex. In 1869, at the age of sixteen, he moved up to the lowest department of the Art Academy itself. There Larsson personality changed. He became more confident and more outgoing and even became a central figure in student life.

The Old Man and New Trees by Carl Larsson (1883)

In his early days at the Academy Carl earned his first medal in nude drawing. He also worked as a caricaturist for the humorous paper Kasper and as a graphic artist for the newspaper Ny Illustrerad Tidning and from the earnings he made from this work he was able to help his parents financially for many years. Once he had graduated from the Academy, Carl travelled to Paris for he believed it was there that he could improve his academic painting. Carl went back and forth between Paris and Sweden for many years.

He remained in Paris for many years working hard but with little success. Larsson was reluctant to align himself with the Impressionist movement and like many of his Swedish compatriots, who were living in the French capital, he shunned this radical artistic movement of change which was all the rage in Paris. As well as receiving some commissions Larsson illustrated books, among which were Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales and August Strindberg’s, Svenska folket and helg och söcken [The Swedish People]). It was never enough to make him financially sound. Carl continued to work tirelessly whilst in Paris but to no great avail and he was often short of money.

*Wilhelmina Holmgren by Carl Larsson (1876)*

Carl had many romantic trysts during this period and for a time he lived with Wilhelmina Holmgren whose portrait he painted in 1876. Sadly she died giving birth to their second child, and soon after, both their children had passed. The situation at the time had a traumatic effect on Larsson who sank into deep depression and for a time he contemplated suicide.

*Portrait of Carl Skånberg by Carl Larsson (1878)*

In 1878 Carl Larsson completed a portrait of Carl Skånberg, a fellow Academy student who had also moved to Paris. Carl submitted the portrait to the Salon that year but unfortunately it was hung so high up on the wall of the Salon that it was hard to see ! During his period in Paris he spent two summers in Barbizon with the en plein air painters but in 1882 he moved to another artist colony, Grez-sur-Loing.

On October 3^rd 1859, when Carl was just a six year-old child, a hundred miles to the west of Stockholm, the birthplace of Carl Larsson, a girl, Karin, was born, the daughter of Adolf Bergöö, who was a successful businessman and his wife, Hilda Sahlqvist. Although born in Örebro Karin grew up in Hallsberg, a town to the south, where her father ran a trading house and he soon became one of the leading citizens of the town. Unlike Carl’s upbringing Karin was brought up in a family which had no financial problems and she had a happy childhood. At the age of twelve, Karin was sent to Stockholm where she divided her time between the French School and courses at slöjdskolan (a craft school). Following a few years of study, she transferred to the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1877. The Academy had only been open to female students since 1864.

*Still Life with Fruit and Tankard*, *1877 painting by Karin Bergöö*

Karin Larsson started at the Fruntimmers (womens) department, where the teaching was completely separate from that of her male students. Although a woman training to be an artist was possible, females wanting to paint were looked upon as just wanting to have a skill that would help in their search for a husband.

In 1882, twenty-three-year-old Karin Larsson, along with some of her fellow artist students, including the talented Impressionist, Julia Beck, travelled to Paris and enrolled in the Académie Colarossi. During the summer break, like many other Swedish painters and writers, they travelled to the artist colony Grez-sur-Loing, seventy kilometres south of Paris. The first overseas artists to arrive at the small village were the Americans, English, Scots and Irish. Then, during the 1880s most of the artists were Scandinavians and just before the turn of the century the Japanese arrived to found the Japanese impressionist movement at Grez. The central part of the village is criss-crossed by meandering streets and much of the town looks the same as it did over 100 years ago. The village is off the beaten track, built on the river that runs leisurely underneath the imposing leafy trees. Grez-sur-Loing is no longer just a farming community, it is a small village which has the unmistakable charm of the late 18th and early 19th century French countryside. It was here that she met Carl Larsson, who was something of a “leader” of the artistic fraternity. Life that summer in Grez for Karin was an artistic highlight and she and Carl Larsson worked side by side, often depicting similar motifs.

One of Karen’s best paintings at the time was a watercolour entitled Mère Morot which she completed in 1882.

October (*The Pumpkins) by Carl Larsson (1882)*

One of the works Carl Larsson produced that year whilst at the Colony was entitled The Pumpkins, some time referred to as October.

Whilst living at Gez-sur-Loing, Carl and Karin’s friendship intensified and the couple fell in love. It was noted that Carl became a much happier man and that his paintings became more colourful. Carl never held himself to be a great catch for Karin in fact on asking her father for her hand in marriage, he wrote to him saying that he was not somebody special but that given time he would prove himself to be a good husband. Karin’s father was impressed with Carl saying that he was a man in the fullest sense of the word and would be pleased to have him as his son-in-law. It is an insight into the couple’s future when Karin wrote to Carl saying that she looked forward to marrying him and giving up painting. This sounds like she had given in to possible future emancipation but it is believed that she was signalling a different artistic route she intended to take once married. She was going to concentrate on interior design and using her creative spirit. A talent which we will see in the next part of the blog, came to fruition. In the autumn of 1882 Carl and Karin married.

To end this first part of Carl and Karin’s story I wanted to go back to his autobiography entitled Jag which translates simply to “I”. He completed it two days before he died but it was never published in full until 1969 ! Why ???

After his death, Carl’s autobiography was read by his wife Karin and the book publisher and friend of the family, Karl Otto Bonnier. The words they read shocked them and they were stunned by what Carl had revealed about his life. In the book he had written quite unabashed about his pre-marital love affairs and that he had lived together and had two children with Wilhelmina Holmgren. He also recounted the tale with regards his favoured model, Gabrielle, and her beauty and the time she had screamed in rage and accused him of being a seducer when he had told her that he had found the right one (Karin). Karin and the publisher decided that the autobiography should not be made available to the public. However, in late 1931, twelve years after Carl’s death and four years after Karin’s passing the publishing house, Bonniers, decided to publish a redacted (sanitised?) version of Carl’s autobiography and it was not until 1969, fifty years after his death, that the full unabridged version was released.

In the next part of the story of Carl and Kari Larsson I will look at Carl’s later more colourful works of art and the couples life back in Sweden in their beautiful home which Karin added so much beauty to.

Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov and the Peredvizhniki.

In past blogs about Russian artists I talked about an artistic group known as the Peredvizhniki, often referred to as The Wanderers or The Itinerants and the artist I am looking at today was also a member of this group. The Wanderers gave a voice to Russian art for the first time in the country’s history. Their art answered the people’s search for solutions to their country’s problems. Many of these artists completed works which were parodies of Russian life and were, through their depictions, critical political statements about the Russian ruling class. Russian art critics had voiced their concern with regards the state of Russian art stating that it was devoid of any originality. They wanted artists to focus more on native themes rather than concentrating on what they termed “cosmopolitan garb”.

**The Peredvizhniki** (1885) (from left to right): Grigoriy Myasoyedov, Konstantin Savitsky, Vasily Polenov, Sergey Ammosov [ru], Alexander Kiselyov, Yefim Volkov, Nikolai Nevrev, Vasily Surikov, Vladimir Makovsky, Alexander Litovchenko, Ivan Shishkin, Kirill Lemokh, Ivan Kramskoi, Nikolai Yaroshenko, Ilya Repin, Pavel Brullov, Ivanov (manager of Peredvizhniki cooperative), Nikolay Makovsky, Alexander Beggrov

In 1863 a group of fourteen students, led by Ivan Kramskoi, who were studying at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg found the rules of the Academy too limiting. They also believed their tutors were too conservative and so decided to take a stand. They believed art should be available to all people and, as many could not visit the grand city galleries, they would take their art to the people. They formed Артель художников, the Petersburg Cooperative of Artists (Artel of Artists). The society resolutely maintained independence from Russian state support and took their art, which depicted the contemporary life of the people from Moscow and Saint Petersburg, to the provinces. In 1870, this organization was succeeded by the Peredvizhniki. The Wanderers established a new social artistry that depicted the lower classes and highlighted the issues surrounding social injustices. Of the aims of the Group, Kramskoi believed that their paintings should, as well as being beautiful, be both wise and educational. Among the movements leading members were Ilya Repin, Ivan Shishkin, Konstantin Makovsky, Vasily Perov and Vasily Polenov.

Today’s artist under the spotlight is Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov who was also a member of the group. Abram was born Abram Efimov[ich] Pyrikov on August 15^th 1862, the son of Efim Nikitich and Arina Fedorovna Pyrikovs. He was raised in an impoverished household in the small and remote village of Yegorovo, in the Ryazan province, two hundred kilometres south-east of Moscow. He would later adopt the surname “Arkhipov” in honour of his great-grandfather, Arkhip Rodionovich.

Abram showed an interest in art when he was a young boy at the village school. However, the only artistic tuition Abram received whilst at home was from traveling icon painters, one of whom, Zaykov, who had connections with the Moscow School of Painting, which was formed by the 1865 merger of a private art college, established in Moscow in 1832 and the Palace School of Architecture, which had been established in 1749. It was one of the largest educational institutions in Russia. Zaykov was impressed by the Abram’s artistic talent and encouraged him to enter the School. His parents were proud of him and offered him great encouragement to continue with his love art. In 1877, despite being impoverished peasants they managed to collect enough money to send him to study at the School of Art, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow.

Sunset over a Winter Landscape by *Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov*

Abram was accepted at the School in 1877 and he studied there for five years. Here he studied alongside future greats in Russian art such as Ryabushkin, Kasatkin and Nesterov and he was tutored by the leading painters of the time, Vasily Perov, Makovsky, Polenov and Savrasov. Arkhipov left the Moscow School and in 1884 transferred to the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Here he was academically successful and some of his paintings were selected for permanent storage at the Academy’s Museum.

Village Iconographer by *Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov*

Something, however, was not right and Abram broke off his studies at the St Petersburg Academy and in 1887 returned to study at the Moscow School of Art, Sculpture and Architecture . The reason for his sudden departure from St Petersburg is not fully known but it is thought that he was discouraged by the Academy’s strict way of teaching art. However, the reason could have been more mundane, and he simply had no financial means to continue his studies in St Petersburg.

Arkhipov had completed a painting entitled Sick Woman in 1885 and two years later at the Moscow School’s student’s exhibition he exhibited it. It depicts two women in a dark and dank interior. The artist’s mother sits with her head dejectedly inclined, her eyes fixed at one point, Next to her sitting on a straw-filled bed is her neighbour who had come to pay the sick woman a visit. She too has the same dimmed sorrowful look in her eyes The postures of the two women, with their tired, unhappy faces is a depiction of their humility, despondency and misery. The only uplifting aspect to this painting is the sunlight, emanating through the open door. Maybe Arkhipov wanted to remind us that happiness and beauty do exist somewhere. It is a work that gives out both quiet sadness and an air of deep compassion for human suffering. The painting proved to be a major breakthrough in Archipov’s life as the work was bought directly from the student exhibition by Pavel Tretyakov, the art collector and owner of the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

On The River Volga by *Abram Arkhipov* (1889)

Once Abram had completed his studies, he decided to embark on a painting trip with some of his former students, along the River Volga. From this journey he completed a number of paintings like his 1889 work, On the Volga. It proved to be a successful fusion of a genre scene and lyrical landscape.

A similar river scene which Arkhipov painted at that time was Along the River Oka. It depicts a barge floating along the river filled with weary peasants, who seem lost in thought. It should not just be taken on face value as a river scene as it is a story about impoverished people who are capable of enduring a great deal without losing their strength and resoluteness. It is both a declaration of the beauty of Russian nature, with its blue horizons, the spring flooding of its rivers, and its streams of sunlight. Arkhipov has used a subdued colour scheme which is in accord with the general mood of the painting. His artistic style has changed. Compared to the careful detail of his early works, his style has become more free, expansive and passionate. Of the painting, the Russian art critic Vladamir Stasov wrote:

“…The whole picture is painted in sunlight and this can be felt in every patch of light and shade, and in the overall wonderful impressions among the people on the barge, the four women—idle, tired, despondent, sitting in silence on their bundles—are portrayed with magnificent realism…”

*In the Evening by Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov*

The work earned Arkhipov membership of the Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions in 1890. He was now one of the Peredvizhniki. It was the largest art association of the second half of the nineteenth century and their exhibitions were held in Russian cities such as Riga, Kiev, Kharkov, and Odessa. Its objectives was three-fold:

Delivery to the inhabitants of the provinces the possibility of contacts with Russian art

Development and love of the arts in society

Making it easier for artists to sell their works.

*Radonitsa (Before the Church Service) by Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov (1892)*

Many of Arkhipov’s paintings were juxtapositions of landscape and genre works such as his 1892 painting entitled Radonitsa or Waiting for Church in which we see a large group of peasants sitting on the floor outside a church waiting for the doors to open and the service begin, but this is not just any service, this is Radonitsa. Radonitsa is a universal church day when relatives and friends of the deceased celebrate the commemoration of those who have died. In the Russian Orthodox Church it is this commemoration of the departed which is observed on the second Tuesday of Easter. The word derives from the Slavic word radost meaning joy and so it is not looked upon a s a mournful day but one of joyful remembrance. It is the Christian belief that lies behind this joy, is the remembrance of the resurrection of Jesus and the joy and hope it brings to all.

The Ice is Gone by *Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov (1895)*

Another of Arkhipov’s paintings which is a mixture of genre and landscape is his 1895 work entitled The Ice is Gone. The painting depicts the connection between nature and the peasants. In a way, it is like the previous work. It is a celebration. The celebration is because the Spring has finally arrived and the ice on the rivers has melted and once more the peasants can use the flowing rivers to their advantage.

Women Labourers at the Iron Foundry by *Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov* (1896)

Many of Arkhipov’s paintings depicted the harsh plight of female peasant workers and their brutal working environment. One such work was his 1896 painting entitled Women Labourers at the Iron Foundry in which we see two women sitting outside the foundry in the relentless hot sun, trying to relax from their physical labour. Black smoke rises against a backdrop of low, wooden workshops.

The plight of the female worker was again highlighted in two paintings by Akhipov entitled Washer Women which he completed 1899. One hangs in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and one in the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg. They were based on a series of studies Abram made of life in the wash-house and are depicted in the muted colours associated with Realism paintings. We see the bent backs of prematurely aged women, toiling amid the steam and heat of their workplace.

*Washer Women by Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov* (1899)

In one work he depicts many peasant women working to clean the village’s laundry. For an accurate portrayal, Abram visited many washhouses making sketches always keen to find figures which would enhance his final work. Eventually he found his “perfect” model and rearranged the depiction around her. She was an elderly woman whom we see on the left of the second work, sitting hunched over, totally exhausted. All the women look defeated and overcome by their physical efforts. These two works by Arkhipov’s highlight the plight of woman who had to work in such harsh, almost inhuman conditions just to earn some money to feed their families. Again, like his other Reailist paintings he has used muted colours, the works only lit up by the light coming in from the small window at the rear, which shows up the steam coming up from under their hands as they wash the clothing. Many of the details stay the same in both works, for example, their hair being tightly tied back and the same women appearing in the background of both paintings. The women are all hard at work in the upper painting, whereas the lower work focuses on the elderly woman talking a break.

Arkhipov’s paintings are brutally realistic and are important pieces in history revealing much about the conditions in the USSR during this time by showing the truth behind the closed doors of the washhouses. The opportunity for women to get better and less arduous jobs was just not available to them.

*Northern Village by Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov (1902)*

*In the North by* *Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov* !903)

In 1902 Arkhipov took the first of a number of trips to the White Sea and from the sketches he made during these journeys he produced two memorable landscape works. A Northern Village in 1902 and In the North in 1903. They signalled a move away from Realism works and a move towards the landscape genre of paintings.

Around 1903 came the formation of the Union of Russian Artists which was the coming together of former Peredvizhniki members and those who had been part of the World of Art, an artistic movement inspired by an art magazine which served as its manifesto de facto, which was a major influence on the Russians who helped revolutionize European art during the first decade of the 20th century. Arkhipov became one of its founding member in 1903.

Around 1903 came the formation of the Union of Russian Artists which was the coming together of former Peredvizhniki members and those who had been part of the World of Art. The Union of Russian Artists lasted until their exhibition in 1910 when due to a split between St. Petersburg and Moscow artists due to harsh words and denouncements of the paintings by various factions. Arkhipov decided that he had had enough of the constant bickering and resigned.

*The Visit (also known as On a Visit; A Festive Spring Day)* by Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov (1915)

Following his resignation from the group he reverted to his favoured painting style, that of genre painting and the depiction of peasants. However, the muted coloured realist paintings soon gave way to a more colourful Impressionist style as seen by his 1915 work entitled The Visit (also known as On a Visit; A Festive Spring Day)

*The Tea Party by Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov (1919)*

Another highly colourful painting was his 1919 work entitled The Tea Party.

Around 1920, Arkhipov became interested in the genre of psychological portraiture. Psychological portraiture is when an artist tries for something more than a simple physical representation of the sitter but tries to reflectand depice the character of the portrayed person. In essence the painter is endeavouring to capture a range of the sitter’s emotions in fractions of a second or for the finished work to tell us more about the personality of the person in a single image.

A Girl with a Jug by *Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov* (1927)

Arkhipov painted an unusual series of portraits of peasant women and girls from the Ryazan and Nizhny Novgorod regions. They are all dressed in bright national costumes. with embroidered scarves and beads. Painted with broad lively strokes, the paintings are marked by their decorative nature and buoyant colours, with rich reds and pinks predominating. The most famous of his portraits is his 1927 painting entitled Girl with a Jug. It depicts a Russian woman dressed in an orange top, a bright red bottom, an apron with a bright pattern. In her hands she holds a bright blue cup and a jug of milk. The dark background, painted by the artist, sets off the girl. Her figure is hidden from us by the wide sleeves and a skirt. She smiles confidently as she looks out at us with an affectionate countenance. The painting is a mass of colour and yet Arkhipov seems to also focus on the inner beauty of the woman which he believes is a window into the Russian soul, strong and yet truthful, open-minded, and generous. In this colourful cycle of painting female peasants, Arkhipov has loosened the shackles of his gloomy realist depictions and his shown us a different side to his art.

In 1924 Arkhipov joined the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia, and in 1927, to mark his fortieth year as an artist, he was among the first artist who was awarded the title of *People’s Artist of the Russian Republic*.

Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov died in Moscow on September 25th, 1930 aged 68.

Fausto Zonaro

My featured artist today is the Italian painter who was best known for his Realist-style works. He is Fausto Zonaro.

Fausto Zonaro was born on September 18^th 1854 in Masi a township in the Province of Padua in the Italian region of Veneto, located about 70 kilometres southwest of Venice and about 45 kilometres southwest of Padua. At the time of Zonaro’s birth, the area was under Austrian control. He was the eldest of six children to Maurizio Zonaro and his wife, Elisabetta Bertoncin. Maurizio was a builder which nowadays would refer to as a mason and like all fathers he had hoped to pass on his profession to his son Fausto. However, Fausto had, as a young boy, developed a love of drawing and sketching. His father was impressed by his twelve-year-old’s artistic skill so much so that he had him enrolled at the Technical Institute of Lendinara, a town 12 km from Masi and so everyday Fausto would set off on this long journey, often barefooted with his shoes slung around his neck so as to preserve the soles. He achieved great things at the school and his artistic talent blossomed. From there, through the patronage of a Paduan noblewoman, Stefania Omboni, who was a leading light of the cultural and social life of the city, and who encouraged young artists, Fausto was able to enrol at the famous Cignaroli Academy in Verona, which was one of the oldest Art Academies in the world and it was listed as one of the five Accademie Storiche d’Italia (Italian Historic Academies). The director of the Academy was the Italian artist, Napoleon Nani.

Venice under the Snow by Fausto Zonaro (c.1888)

After completing his studies at the Academy, Fausto moved to Venice where he opened up his own studio on Palazzo Pesaro, on the Grand Canal, and it was here that he painted both small landscape works which were favoured by the visiting tourists and larger works featuring daily life of the people of the city.

*Una Via di Napoli by Fausto Zonaro (c.1884)*

He actively displayed works in exhibition in Naples, Turin and Rome and gained the respect of the art critics. He painted mainly genre works in oil and watercolour.

*The Port of Naples by Fausto Zonaro (c.1888)*

Whilst living in Venice Zonaro met Duke Paolo Camerini, who became not only his close friend of a lifetime, but also one of his most generous patrons. One of Zonaro’s commissions from Camerini was for a series of paintings which would adorn the walls of a living room in the duke’s luxurious villa, the Piazzola sul Brenta, which nowadays is known as Simes-Contarini.

Villa Contarini as it looks nowadays

The series of thirty pastel works, which took Zonaro from 1887 to 1889 to complete, included views of Naples and surrounding places: alleys and streets of the city, one of Mt. Vesuvius, and many depicting local flora. They were set in the walls of the room and framed by plaster decorations that act as real frames.

*Fausto Zonaro: Young Girl Carrying a Pumpkin, (1889)*

Competition with other painters to sell their works of art was very difficult and the market for his work, despite its quality, was highly unstable and competition was ruthless. In the years between 1885 and 1888 Zonaro wandered between Venice and Naples, without a specific plan for his future. At the time he simply declared:

“…It was a hard and adverse period. Time passed without a trace. The cities and places where I stopped to paint left no imprint on my memory. My experiences of those times are just a confused and indistinct memory as if, instead of living them, I had only dreamed of them. But the impressions I got from these trips were like the colours I imagined on my palette…”.

In 1888, Fausto Zonaro was living in Paris which was, at that time, the world centre for Impressionism and he met with many of the “masters” of this painting style. For the next twelve months he settled into a concentrated study of art in an attempt to refine his artistic techniques. Fausto’s paintings were a mishmash of various styles. He leant towards both Impressionism, albeit a rather superficial Impressionism, which permitted him to quickly complete the sketches all of which were conducted outdoors There was also a more nineteenth Italian style, detailed and full of colours, which Zonaro did not hesitate to use in his large works or in many of his works he created in the studio. He was fascinated with the study of light, which will he increasingly perfected over the years and which made the name Fausto Zonaro synonymous with a painter of life and light.

*Mia Moglie Elisa (My wife Elisa) by Fausto Zonaro (c.1891)*

But life was to change for Fausto. Changes that made him focus more on his future. Among the other students who attended the school of Palazzo Pesaro was a young woman, a daughter of an engineer from Belluno, Elisabetta Pante. Fausto and Elisa became great friends and constant companions.

Elisabetta Pante by Fausto Zonaro (1889)

Zonaro was a great reader of books especially those extoling the virtues of travel and his favourite book at the time was Edmondo De Amicis book entitled Constantinople.

It was a non-fiction travel book published in 1877 which was a best-seller. Fausto and Elisabetta decided that travelling to Constantinople and living there for a period of time would lead to an exciting future. It would be the perfect opportunity to search for new inspirations and new places to explore.

Elisa(betta) left Venice first. She travelled to Constantinople, to an unknown city, on her own without any fear for her safety despite being a single lady. She had a teaching diploma and with the help of the Royal Italian Embassy of Italy began to initiate a network of relationship with the art community which would help Fausto. Whilst she awaited the arrival of Fausto she busied herself with teaching children sketching and the Italian language. She also arranged to rent two small wooden buildings, in the ancient district of Pera, now known as Beyoglu, the economic district and home to all the European Embassies. One building for herself and one for Fausto when he finally arrived in Turkey.

Fausto Zonaro soon followed Elisa leaving Venice for Constantinople. During his sea passage he never missed the opportunity to paint depictions of the stop-over ports such as Ancona, Bari, Corfu, Patras, and Athens.

*Fountain of Anadoluhisarı by Fausto Zonaro (c.1893)*

When Fausto Zonaro finally arrived at Constantinople he could not believe the beauty of the place and its people. All art was forgotten for the first few weeks after his arrival as he immersed himself into the city and its people. He soon realised that the light and the atmosphere he experienced whilst living in Italy did not compare to the light and atmosphere he was now experiencing in Turkey and he felt challenged to depict these changes in his paintings. One of the places he visited was Anadoluhisarı, a medieval Ottoman fortress in Constantinople.

Istanbul by Fausto Zonaro

His initial paintings were avidly bought by tourists visiting the great Turkish city. Scenes featuring the daily life of the Turkish people were favourite subjects of tourists and traders in art. However, the money Fausto earned from the sale of his artwork had to be supplemented by Elisa’s earnings.

On the Göksu Deresi (showing Zonaro’s wife Elisabetta) by Fausto Zonaro

Fausto and Elisabetta’s friendship turned to love and in 1892, a year after their arrival in the Turkish city, Fausto and Elisa married and that same year their first child, a son, Fausto Junior, was born. Elisa was also the very important conduit between Fausto and the Western and Eastern aristocracy which led to many painting commissions. Elisa realised that for her husband’s work to be sold at good prices he needed a sales and marketing strategy. She took on the mantle of his publicist and realised that photography would be the medium they would use to sell Fausto’s work. She and their son travelled to Paris to study photography.

The Embarkation by Fausto Zonaro

Elisa returned to Constantinople, equipped with cameras, acids, films, and tanks used for the development of the photographs. She then takes many photographs of Fausto’s artwork and sends them to the major art newspapers in the world. The media was excited with what they received and the popular German journal, the Illustrirte Zeitung in Leipzig used a photograph of Fausto Zonaro’s painting, The Auctioneer on its front cover. This was excellent publicity for Zonaro as the newspaper was read in the living rooms of all the European Embassies in Constantinople, and soon many foreign ambassadors became interested in his work. Portraiture and landscape commissions flowed in. The Ambassador of Russia, Alexander Nelidov, even provided Fausto with a hall in the Russian Embassy where he would open a painting school which was attended by a good part of the Western aristocracy present in Constantinople such as Ambassadors, noblewomen, and ladies of the upper bourgeoisie even members of the Sultan’s court.

*Imperial Regiment of Ertogrul on the Galata Bridge by Fausto Zonaro (1896)*

Alexsandr Nelidov helped Zonaro in another but very important way when he presented him to the Turkish ruler, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, when Zonaro’s showed him his latest painting entitled the Imperial Regiment of Ertogrul on the Galata Bridge which he had completed in 1896. The painting depicts the Ertogrul Cavalry Regiment, the Imperial Guard, dressed in their smart dark blue coats, pants and tarbush or ‘fez’ was the basis of the Ottoman uniform for 40 years. Zonaro had made many preliminary sketches of the troops before combining them into this large painting which is awash with detail. The regiment was named after Ertuğrul Bey who was the father of Osman I the founder of the Ottoman Empire.

Mehmed II at the Siege of Constantinopole by Fausto Zonaro

Mehmed II Entering Constantinople by Fausto Zonaro

The Sultan then commissioned a series of paintings from Zonaro depicting events in the life of the 15th-century Ottoman sultan, Mehmed II. Zonaro was proud of the fact that as court painter he had followed earlier great painters who held that position, such as Gentile Bellini. Life in Constantinople came to an end in 1909 following the Young Turk Revolution, which wished to see Abdul Hamid’s regime dismantled and reintroduce the Constitution. The deposal of the sultan ended the position of court painter and Zonaro was out of work.

Galata Bridge Istanbul by Fausto Zonaro

Zonaro, and his wife left Turkey and moved to Italy where they settled down in San Remo. Zonaro started to rebuild his life and organises exhibitions throughout Liguria and the French Riviera. The subject of his later works was the Italian and French Rivieras as well as depictions of Constantinople and the Bosphorus which reminded him of happier times. In 1920 Zonaro and his wife Elisabetta separated and he went to live with his daughter, Yolanda.

A Young Woman by Fausto Zonaro

Fausto Zonaro died on July 19^th 1929 two months before his seventy-fifth birthday. He was buried in the Foce Cemetery in Sanremo. On his gravestone, beneath an Ottoman tughra, it states that Zonaro was the court painter of the Ottoman Empire