Editing Michael Ancher (section)

==Early life and education==
[[File:Vil han klare pynten.jpg|thumb|300px|left|''Vil han klare pynten'' (''Will he round the point?'', detail, 1879)]]
[[File:Redningsbåden køres gennem klitterne (high resolution).jpg|thumb|left|300px|''Redningsbåden køres gennem klitterne'' (''The lifeboat is taken through the dunes'', detail, 1883)]]

Michael Peter Ancher was born at [[Rutsker]] on the island of [[Bornholm]] in the Baltic. The son of a local merchant, he attended school in [[Rønne]] but was unable to complete his secondary education as his father ran into financial difficulties, forcing him to fend for himself. In 1865, he found work as an apprentice clerk at Kalø Manor near [[Rønde]] in eastern [[Jutland]]. The following year, he met the painters [[Theodor Philipsen]] and [[Vilhelm Groth]] who had arrived in the area to paint. Impressed with his own early work, they encouraged him to take up painting as a profession. In 1871, he spent a short period at C.V Nielsen's art school as a preliminary to joining the [[Royal Danish Academy of Art]] in [[Copenhagen]] later in the year. Although he spent some time at the academy, he left in 1875 without graduating.<ref name=kdwk>{{cite web|url=https://www.kulturarv.dk/kid/VisWeilbach.do?kunstnerId=133&wsektion=alle|title=Michael Ancher|work=Kunstindeks Danmark & Weilbachs Kunstnerleksikon|access-date=4 August 2014 |language=da}}</ref>

One of his student companions was [[Karl Madsen]] who invited him to travel to [[Skagen]], a small fishing village in the far north of Jutland where [[Skagerak]] and [[North Sea]] converge. From the mid-1870s, he and Madsen became key members of a group of artists who congregated there each summer, known as the [[Skagen Painters]].<ref name=sm>{{cite web|url=http://www.skagensmuseum.dk/en/collection/the-artists/michael-ancher/|title=Michael Ancher (1849&ndash;1927)|publisher=Skagens Museum|access-date=4 August 2014 }}</ref>

After Ancher first visited Skagen in 1874, he settled there joining the growing society of artists. The colony of painters regularly met in the [[Brøndums Hotel]] in Skagen in order to exchange ideas. In 1880 Ancher married fellow painter and Skagen native [[Anna Ancher|Anna Brøndum]], whose father owned the Brøndums Hotel. In the first years of their marriage, the couple had a home and studio in the "Garden House", which is now in the garden of the Skagens Museum. After the birth of their daughter [[Helga Ancher|Helga]] in 1883, the family moved to Markvej in Skagen.<ref name=sm/>