Danish painter Peder Severin Kroyer was once celebrated as pre-eminent artist of the school of Northern Light, now his name is hardly mentioned
Arts Society Newbury lecture Dr Kathy McLauchlan: Peder Severin Kroyer: Painter of Northern Light
on Tuesday, January 21
at Arlington Arts, Snelsmore
Review by ALAN CHILDS
At the end of the 19th century and the very beginning of the 20th, Danish painter Peder Severin Kroyer was celebrated in Europe as the pre-eminent artist of the school of Northern Light.
Yet withing a few years his style had fallen so far out of critical fashion that today his name is hardly mentioned.
His particular interest was in light, lecturer and specialist Dr Kathy McLauchlan, told the Arts Society Newbury.
Kroyer trained in the classical manner in Copenhagen, and in 1877 moved to Paris, working at first in the classical, refined style. The art world was changing, though, to naturalism. Kroyer chose not to follow Impressionism, but a more traditional form of naturalistic painting from life, real people, real fields, said Dr McLauchlan, although still highly finished.
His real interest was in capturing light, manipulating it to focus on his figures and landscapes.
On his return to Denmark he became part of Rural Art Colony movement, which saw artists all over Europe retreating with their comrades to country communities to capture local life and its people.
In 1882 Kroyer settled on work in the village of Skagen, the northernmost point of Denmark, accepting the invitation of a colleague leading the local Colony who was, Dr MacLaughlan said, put out when he accepted the offer and proceeded to take over.
The effects of light were still his focus but he began to overlay the realism with harmonies of silver and blue, “aestheticizing the real world”.
Yet, she explained, his success became problematic, and there was a “time limit” on the beautiful world he created. Critics and the art world turned to Modernism and its successors, and one of his last works on a Skagen beach has a melancholy air, as he and his wife gaze in different directions. Even their dog looks unhappy.
Nevertheless, Dr McLauchlan said, Kroyer is a painter who deserves to be better known.
Next lecture
The Stirling Prize: British Architecture’s Oscars
on Tuesday, February 18 at Arlington Arts
Full details: thertssocietynewbury.org.uk
