DOI Heft:
No. 133 (March, 1908)
DOI Artikel:Bröchner, Georg: A Danish painter: Peter Severin Kröyer
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28254#0054
P. S. Kroyer, Danish Painter
off” (forgive the expression) the most admirable
likeness in balf-an-hour, literally. For instance, he
did three portraits (in pencil) of the late Sophus
Schandorph, the celebrated Danish novelist, and all
three were done the same evening, each within thirty
minutes ; and the same with the sketches of Vibeke,
his fair little daughter, and of his charming wife,
both of whom have furnished Kroyer with a number
of exquisite motifs. Even in oils he is able to
arrest the abrupt turn of the head and the quick
inquisitive glance of the child, or the blended reflex
of day and artificial light on shot silk of diverse
colours. He has from his youth had a keenly
appreciative eye for the effects of artificial light, be
it in a salon or in a smithy, and of the atmosphere,
indoors and out, few know better than Kroyer how
to saturate a space with air, or steep an outdoor
scene in sunny mist.
Strangely enough this genial artist, in whose work
and tastes a lyric temperament is often allowed to
assert itself, at times reveals a tendency for not
taking his models quite seriously, for looking at
them through slightly ironical glasses. His well-
known picture of a number of merchants of the
Copenhagen Exchange is often mentioned as an
instance of this. But perhaps the almost imper-
ceptible satire with which he has depicted the
majority of these gentlemen is only intended to
further enhance the personality of the central
figure, an eminent financier, whom Kroyer has
portrayed with all the deference due to his genius
and integrity.
On the other hand, the large picture representing
a lecture before the Danish Society of Science is
imbued with an almost solemn dignity. The
grouping is excellent, the likenesses capital, the
diffusion of the light from the huge chandeliers
done with the utmost skill. Surely one rarely
sees so many admirably individualised portraits on
one canvas, in addition to which the bearing of the
whole picture is most complete and harmonious.
This, perhaps, is one of Kroyer’s greatest gifts : the
power to endow a figure or a number of figures
with an unmistakable, a perfect individuality.
Thus, in his picture (one of his best, I consider)
of the committee of a French exhibition in
Copenhagen, many of the likenesses are almost
ideal, and so full of life and verve that one feels
quite instinctively that it is an assembly of pro-
minent Frenchmen. How easy and naturally
“the tradesmen’s booth”
BY P. S. KROYER
off” (forgive the expression) the most admirable
likeness in balf-an-hour, literally. For instance, he
did three portraits (in pencil) of the late Sophus
Schandorph, the celebrated Danish novelist, and all
three were done the same evening, each within thirty
minutes ; and the same with the sketches of Vibeke,
his fair little daughter, and of his charming wife,
both of whom have furnished Kroyer with a number
of exquisite motifs. Even in oils he is able to
arrest the abrupt turn of the head and the quick
inquisitive glance of the child, or the blended reflex
of day and artificial light on shot silk of diverse
colours. He has from his youth had a keenly
appreciative eye for the effects of artificial light, be
it in a salon or in a smithy, and of the atmosphere,
indoors and out, few know better than Kroyer how
to saturate a space with air, or steep an outdoor
scene in sunny mist.
Strangely enough this genial artist, in whose work
and tastes a lyric temperament is often allowed to
assert itself, at times reveals a tendency for not
taking his models quite seriously, for looking at
them through slightly ironical glasses. His well-
known picture of a number of merchants of the
Copenhagen Exchange is often mentioned as an
instance of this. But perhaps the almost imper-
ceptible satire with which he has depicted the
majority of these gentlemen is only intended to
further enhance the personality of the central
figure, an eminent financier, whom Kroyer has
portrayed with all the deference due to his genius
and integrity.
On the other hand, the large picture representing
a lecture before the Danish Society of Science is
imbued with an almost solemn dignity. The
grouping is excellent, the likenesses capital, the
diffusion of the light from the huge chandeliers
done with the utmost skill. Surely one rarely
sees so many admirably individualised portraits on
one canvas, in addition to which the bearing of the
whole picture is most complete and harmonious.
This, perhaps, is one of Kroyer’s greatest gifts : the
power to endow a figure or a number of figures
with an unmistakable, a perfect individuality.
Thus, in his picture (one of his best, I consider)
of the committee of a French exhibition in
Copenhagen, many of the likenesses are almost
ideal, and so full of life and verve that one feels
quite instinctively that it is an assembly of pro-
minent Frenchmen. How easy and naturally
“the tradesmen’s booth”
BY P. S. KROYER