|
||||
|
||||
|
During his ten year long stay in Paris the sculptor Niels Hansen Jacobsen met many interesting people - among them colleagues from Denmark. Some acquaintances evolved into lifelong friendships. That is what happened when the sculptor and his wife met the young painter Anna E. Munch. From 1892 she had been on a grand tour of Europe through Germany, Switzerland, southern France, Italy, back via southern France and Brittany to Paris. From 1894 she was a pupil at the Académie Julian for a short while and later she studied with the well known painter Jean-Paul Laurens - Niels Hansen Jacobsens neighbour at Boulevard Arago 65. 1895-97 she was back in Denmark, and studied with Julius Paulsen. 1897 she was once again in Brittany, where she found the subject for her first exhibition piece titled »Double portrait. Brittany.« It was a portrait of Mrs and Mr Goulven, the people who owned the inn where she stayed in Le Pouldu. During the summers of 1898-1904 on the north-western coast of Jutland around Vester Svenstrup Anna E. Munch, her mother and sister found a similar sort of simple, pious life as had fascinated them in Brittany. After her mother's death the artist's sister Helga settled in this area with a friend, the artist Johanne Frimodt (1861-1920). Anna E. Munch in 1931 and 1942 finished altarpieces for the nearby churches in Sejlstrup and Hjortdal. The largest altarpiece is in the small, beautifully situated church of Hjortdal. Even though the triptych is dated 1942, it is based on studies from the turn of the century. Maren Kathrine, whom Anna E. Munch got to know very well was the model for one of the main characters. She was asked to model several times - she is also depicted on the large canvas called, »The Ages of Life«, 1905, painted for the Højskoleforening's large assembly room on Forhåbningsholms Allé (the painting is no longer in situ). She also posed for »Home from Church«, where she is the woman on the right. The painting was most likely a present from Anna E. Munch to Niels Hansen Jacobsen. The painting may be 'read' as a homage to a region and a group of people who Anna E. Munch was very fond of. Socially they belonged to very different groups, but their basic view of God and human life were closely related. In the simple, windswept countryside she presents the churchgoers disappearing in each their own direction, but with the two distinct female figures in the foreground. In the top, right hand corner the church of Hjortdal is visible - the church for which years later she was asked to prepare an altarpiece. Teresa Nielsen
Literature Karl Christensen
»Anna E. Munch«, volume 26 in the series Danske Kunstnere, 1938. |
