Editing Michael Ancher

{{Short description|Danish painter (1849–1927)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
[[File:Selvportræt, 1902 - Michael Ancher.jpg|thumb|Michael Ancher: self-portrait (1902)]]
[[File:Michael_Ancher_portrætfoto_2_-_Restoration.jpg|thumb|Photograph]]
'''Michael Peter Ancher''' (9 June 1849 – 19 September 1927) was a Danish [[Realism (art movement)|realist]] artist, widely known for his paintings of fishermen, the Skagerak and the North Sea, and other scenes from the Danish fishing community in [[Skagen]].

==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/>

==Career==

He achieved his artistic breakthrough in 1879 with the painting ''Vil han klare pynten'' (''[[Will He Round the Point?]]''). Michael Ancher's works depict Skagen's heroic fishermen and their dramatic experiences at sea, combining realism and classical composition. Key works include ''The Lifeboat is Carried Through The Dunes'' (1883), ''The Crew Are Saved'' (1894) and ''The Drowned Man'' (1896).<ref name=kdwk/><ref name=sm/>

Michael Ancher was influenced by his traditional training at the [[Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts]] in the 1870s which imposed strict rules for composition. His marriage to [[Anna Ancher]] did, however, introduce him to the naturalistic concept of undecorated reproduction of reality and its colours. By combining the pictorial composition of his youth with the teachings of naturalism, Michael Ancher created what has been called modern monumental figurative art, such as ''A Baptism''.<ref>[http://www.skagensmuseum.dk/index.php?id=92&L=0 ''Michael Ancher'' (Skagens Museum)]</ref>
[[File:Michael Ancher - A stroll on the beach - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|388px|A stroll on the beach]]

Among other places, the works of Anna and Michael Ancher can be seen at the [[Skagens Museum]], {{lang|da|[[Statens Museum for Kunst]]|italic=no}}, the [[Hillerød|Frederiksborg Museum]], [[The Hirschsprung Collection]], and [[Ribe Kunstmuseum|Ribe Art Museum]]. Michael Ancher received the [[Eckersberg Medal]] in 1889 and in 1894 the [[Order of the Dannebrog]]. Originally many of Ancher's paintings hung in the dining room of the Brøndums Hotel. The painter [[P.S. Krøyer]] conceived the idea of placing paintings by different artists in the wall panels. In 1946 the dining hall was moved to Skagens Museum.<ref name=sm/>

==Michael and Anna Ancher's home==

The Skagen residence of Anna and Michael Ancher was purchased in 1884. In 1913, a large studio annex was added to the property and this also forms part of what is on display today. Upon her death in 1935, their daughter, Helga Ancher, left the house and all of its contents to the Helga Ancher Foundation.

In 1967 the home was turned into a museum, the [[Michael and Anna Ancher House|Anchers Hus]]. The original furniture and paintings created by the Anchers and other Skagen artists are shown in the restored home and studio. Temporary art exhibitions are arranged in ''Saxilds Gaard'', another building on the property. This house is filled with displays of paintings by Michael and Anna Ancher as well as those by many other Skagen painters who made up their circle of friends. Today the house is a part of [[Skagens Museum|Skagens Kunstmuseer]].
{{-}}
<gallery mode="packed" heights="145">
File:Michael & Anna Anchers Hus i Skagen, 2007 ubt.jpeg|Michael and Anna Ancher's home, Anchers Hus, in Skagen
File:ANCHER HOUSE INTERIOR - SKAGEN, DENMARK.jpg|The dining room in the Ancher house
File:Anchers hus atelje.JPG|The artist's atelier
</gallery>

==Danish thousand-kroner bill==
Anna and Michael Ancher were featured on the front of the previous series [[Banknotes of Denmark, 1997 series|DKK1000 bill]]. The first version of the bill came into circulation on 18 September 1998, and was then updated on 25 November 2004, adding more security features. The front of the banknote featured a double portrait of Anna and Michael Ancher, derived from two 1884 paintings by [[Peder Severin Krøyer]]<ref>{{Cite book
 |url=http://www.nationalbanken.dk/C1256BE900406EF3/sysOakFil/Danmarks_penge_2005_ENG/$File/Coins_Banknotes.pdf 
 |title=The coins and banknotes of Denmark 
 |year=2005 
 |publisher=Danmarks Nationalbank 
 |pages=22–23 
 |access-date=6 September 2010 |isbn=87-87251-55-8 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523100635/http://www.nationalbanken.dk/C1256BE900406EF3/sysOakFil/Danmarks_penge_2005_ENG/%24File/Coins_Banknotes.pdf 
 |archive-date=23 May 2011 }}<!-- (Online) ISBN 87-87251-56-6 --></ref><ref>{{Cite web
 |url = http://www.nationalbanken.dk/da/sedlerogmoenter/danske_pengesedler_tidligere/Sider/Serie-1997.aspx|title = 1,000-krone banknote, 1997 series|publisher = Danmarks Nationalbank}}</ref>
which originally hung on the walls in the dining room at Brøndums Hotel.

==Correspondance==
A collection of almost 4,000 letters between Michael and Anna Ancher and their friends, with comments by the art historian Elisabeth Fabritius, was published as ''Anna og Mchael Ancher. Breve og fotografier 1866-1935'' I-VI was published by Forlaget Historika. in 2020.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/kultur/nyt-lys-over-skagensmalernes-liv|title=Skagensmaleres 4000 personlige breve er blevet offentliggjort: "Det er overvældende interessant"|language=Danish|website=Kristeligt Dagblad|access-date=4 March 2024}}</ref>

== Newly-discovered Van Gogh copy ==
In 2016, a painting was purchased for less than $50 at a [[garage sale]] in [[Minnesota]], bearing the inscription 'Elimar'. After speculation that the work was by Dutch artist [[Vincent van Gogh]], it was brought to the art research firm LMI Group International in NYC in 2019, who after four years of research ultimately attributed the painting to Van Gogh.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Guy |first=Jack |date=2025-01-30 |title=Painting found at garage sale is a Van Gogh, experts say |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/30/style/garage-sale-van-gogh-elimar-scli-intl/index.html |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref> From 2020-2025, the work went under investigation by a team of around 20 experts, and numerous pieces of evidence have been put forward in a 456 page report to prove the work's authenticity; analyzation of the canvas weave, radiocarbon dating, paint [[Pigment|pigments]] and overall characteristics of the style. <ref> [https://www.lmigroupintl.com/pdf/elimar-report]</ref> A strand of red human hair was even found embedded in the canvas and was sent to be analyzed. Despite the fact that it came from a human male, efforts to compare its [[DNA]] to that of Van Gogh's descendants ultimately failed due to its reportedly "degraded state", as stated by LMI. This research has also given experts the ability to date the work, which was in 1889, during Van Gogh's time at the [[Saint-Paul Asylum]] in [[Saint-Rémy-de-Provence|Saint-Rémy]].<ref name=":0" />

The LMI Group later stated that the work (now referred to as 'Elimar', using the inscription in the bottom right corner) was based on a portrait by Michael Ancher, therefore adding to Van Gogh's considerable list of "translations" of other artists' works<ref name=":0" /> (notably [[Paul Gauguin]], [[Émile Bernard]] and [[Jean-François Millet]]). According to research by the LMI Group, the ‘Elimar’ inscription on the Van Gogh painting is a reference by Vincent Van Gogh to a fisherman character in one of Hans Christian Andersen’s books of which Van Gogh was known to have read, and is not the signature of the Danish amateur painter Henning Elimar (based on material science and data, inscription measurements, stylistic and other documented in-congruencies).<ref> [https://www.lmigroupintl.com/pdf/post-release-statement-on-elimar]</ref>

==Paintings==
<gallery mode="packed">
File:Michael Ancher - Christmas Day 1900 - Google Art Project.jpg|Christmas Day 1900 
A Baptism (Michael Ancher).jpg|A Baptism
Michael Ancher Strandszene.jpg|Beach scene
File:Michael Ancher - Skagen girl, Maren Sofie, knitting. - Google Art Project.jpg|Skagen girl, Maren Sofie, knitting
Fishermen.1.jpg|Two Fishermen by a boat
File:Michael Ancher - Den røde redningsbåd sejler ud.jpg|The red lifeboat on its way out to the sea
File:Michael Ancher - Portrait of my wife. The painter Anna Ancher - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Portrait of My Wife, the Painter Anna Ancher]]''
File:Michael Ancher - Anna Ancher returning from the field - Google Art Project.jpg|[[Anna Ancher]] returning from the field
Michael Ancher - Unfinished portrait of Adrian Stokes.JPG|Unfinished portrait of [[Adrian Scott Stokes|Adrian Stokes]]
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[Skagen Painters]]
*[[Lars Kruse]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book|last=Svanholm|first=Lise|title=Malerne på Skagen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BF0X_SrxDk8C|year=2001|publisher=Gyldendal A/S|isbn=978-87-00-75184-2}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://www.broendums-hotel.dk/ Brøndums Hotel] {{in lang|da}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110713144954/http://www.kettererkunst.com/dict/skagen-paintings.shtml Skagen Paintings]

{{Skagen Painters}}
{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ancher, Michael Peter}}
[[Category:1849 births]]
[[Category:1927 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Danish painters]]
[[Category:Danish male painters]]
[[Category:20th-century Danish painters]]
[[Category:19th-century Danish letter writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Danish letter writers]]
[[Category:Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog]]
[[Category:People from Bornholm]]
[[Category:Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Thorvaldsen Medal]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Eckersberg Medal]]
[[Category:Skagen Painters]]
[[Category:19th-century Danish male artists]]
[[Category:20th-century Danish male artists]]