Faaborg Museum and the Artists' Colony
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20 20 Behind rolling hills, overlooking the fjord and the islands of Southern Funen, you will find Faaborg Museum. With its boldly coloured walls and decorative tile floors made from local clay, the Faaborg building has quite literally sprung from Funen soil in a symbiosis of local nature and culture. Inside, visitors will find art by the ‘Funen Museum Painters’, created during the period 1880 to 1928 when Faaborg was home to one of Denmark’s pre-eminent artists’ colonies. With their paintings of rural Funen, farmworkers and domestic scenes, and the the artists Peter Hansen, Fritz and Anna Syberg, Jens Birkholm and Johannes Larsen introduced new subject matter and new methods of painting in Danish art. Artists’ Faaborg Museum was founded in 1910 by Mads Rasmussen, art patron and manufacturer of tinned goods and preserves. The Colony museum was intended as a celebration of the art created in and around Faaborg. Together with the artists, he commissioned the architect Carl Petersen to create a building to house the museum’s collection – a building that is now acclaimed as a masterpiece of neoclassical architecture and embodies a rare union of art, architecture and design. Faaborg Museum and the Artists’ Colony presents the history of Faaborg Museum, its architecture, collection and artists to international audiences for the first time. Lavishly illustrated, the book features architectural photographs and plans as well as dozens of reproductions of the museum’s art. Faaborg Museum Aarhus University Press 110174_cover_faaborg museum_r1_.indd 1 16/04/2019 10.05 Faaborg Museum and the Artists’ Colony 110174_Faaborg Museum_cc19_r1a_.indd 1 16/04/2019 15.59 We are very grateful to the following foundations whose generous contributions made it possible to carry out this project: 15. Juni Fonden Augustinus Fonden Arne V. Schleschs Fond Beckett-Fonden Bergiafonden Den Hielmstierne-Rosencroneske Stiftelse Frimodt-Heineke Fonden Knud Højgaards Fond Landsdommer V. Gieses Legat Ny Carlsbergfondet Oda og Hans Svenningsens Fond 110174_Faaborg Museum_cc19_r1a_.indd 2 16/04/2019 15.59 Faaborg Museum and the Artists’ Colony Faaborg Museum Aarhus University Press 110174_Faaborg Museum_cc19_r1a_.indd 3 16/04/2019 15.59 Contents 110174_Faaborg Museum_cc19_r1a_.indd 4 16/04/2019 15.59 6 Preface 14 Faaborg by Heart The Artists’ Colony 1880–1928 Gry Hedin 42 A World Within a World Faaborg Museum and Genre Painting Gertrud Hvidberg-Hansen 70 Between Painting and Industry Landscapes around Faaborg Gry Hedin 94 Uniting Art Forms The Architect and Artists behind Faaborg Museum Gry Hedin and Gertrud Hvidberg-Hansen 162 Two Men and a Museum Carl Petersen, Mads Rasmussen and Faaborg Museum Flemming Brandrup 216 The Faaborg Chair Icon and Inventory Anders V. Munch 234 Fragmented Monumentality Picturesque and Mannerist Traits of Carl Petersen’s Faaborg Museum Peter Thule Kristensen 250 Notes 262 Photo Credits 264 About the Authors 266 Index 110174_Faaborg Museum_cc19_r1a_.indd 5 16/04/2019 15.59 Preface 6 110174_Faaborg Museum_cc19_r1a_.indd 6 16/04/2019 15.59 Gry Hedin and Gertrud Hvidberg-Hansen Behind the rolling hills of Svanninge (Svanninge Faaborg Museum was founded in 1910 by Bakker), overlooking the fjord and the South the tinned-good and preserves manufacturer Funen islands, is an art museum sprung from Mads Rasmussen as a celebration of the art Funen soil. Visitors step in from the winding created in and around Faaborg. He invited a streets of Faaborg to enter a time warp where circle of artists to help him create a collection cheerful, dynamic classicist architecture forms for public display, and when it outgrew its initial the backdrop to art by the circle of artists setting in the patron’s summer flat in Faaborg, known as the Funen Painters (Fynboerne). In the architect Carl Petersen was appointed to the galleries of this museum, art, architecture design a new museum building. Inaugurated in and design combine to form an expressive, 1915, this building presents a collection of art multi-faceted Gesamtkunstwerk that is full created by many local artists, and the collection of surprises, narratives – and contrasts. The and the building itself are inextricably linked. artists depict the landscapes of the area, the Faaborg Museum has long been regarded as hard-working local farmers, and details from a masterpiece of Nordic classicism, but the daily life in this provincial market town, but the museum is also a monument to an artists’ collection also features works that hark back colony that embodies a particular direction to ancient classical and Norse myths, while the within Danish art around 1900. While the architecture itself draws inspiration from Japan, museum’s architecture has won international ancient Greece and Baroque-era Italy. acclaim, the artists’ colony that served as its Driven by tremendous energy, industrious- foundations has received rather less attention. ness and creativity, the artists, architect and Mads Rasmussen himself emphasised that patron came together to create this communal his activities as a patron rested on local art work – its motifs, materials and scale con- created by artists who were not just passing necting the colourful museum galleries to the through, and at the museum’s inauguration the urban spaces outside and the verdant Funen artists’ spokesman, Nicolaus Lützhøft, called landscapes beyond. The museum represents Faaborg an artists’ colony. However, Faaborg a delightful coming-together of creative and is quite unique among artists’ colonies. From enthusiastic spirits, their different voices joining the 1880s and well into the 1920s, the town in a unique polyphony. In this book, their stories enjoyed a rich cultural life and experienced the are presented together for the first time as part presence of many artists, but these painters had of the overall story of Faaborg Museum and the not been attracted to the area by the beautiful artists’ colony in Faaborg. landscapes and the picturesque rural life on the à 7 CONTENTS This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed 110174_Faaborg Museum_cc19_r1a_.indd 7 16/04/2019 15.59 local farms. They were already there. Born and Gottschalk and Harald Giersing. The most raised in the area and trained as housepainters important figures of the colony are represented in the town. Having spent a few years at Kristian in the museum collection, which includes some Zahrtmann’s school of painting in Copenhagen, of their main masterpieces, but the collection they returned to their native soil to paint its does not restrict itself to artists who worked landscapes and people. By contrast, only very in the area. The artists’ circle also included few among the more than 3,000 artists who set painters from other parts of Funen, such as out from the cities of Europe around this time Johannes Larsen and Poul S. Christiansen, to engage in plein-air painting in places such as and the circle preferred to refer to itself as ‘the Barbizon in France, Worpswede in Germany and Funen Painters’ rather than as ‘the artists’ Skagen at the northernmost point of Denmark colony in Faaborg’. However, this designation is actually came from the region where they not exhaustive either. Artists who were not born settled to work. This makes Faaborg an atypical on Funen, and who found their subject matter kind of artists’ colony. in other parts of Denmark or Europe, also found Four artists in particular were pivotal to their way into the museum collection through the colony: Peter Hansen, Anna Syberg (née their friendships with the ‘real’ Funen Painters. Hansen), Fritz Syberg and Jens Birkholm. Among these we find Kristian Zahrtmann. Thus, Together, they created a new way of depicting Faaborg Museum came to be a monument to a rural Denmark. They reinterpreted nature, wider movement within Danish art around 1900. provincial life and intimate family scenes, Rather than specific local ties, the common opening their contemporaries’ eyes to a wealth denominator linking these artists may in of new subjects and themes. All four lived in fact reside in the way they approach their the town and in the nearby village of Svanninge surroundings openly, directly and with a for long periods of time. Peter Hansen and Fritz sense of genuine equality, often engaging in Syberg became prominent figures on the Danish plein-air painting. The artists also applied this art scene, establishing new ways of depicting practice when settling elsewhere – whether in modern country life. Anna Syberg reinterpreted Kerteminde on north-eastern Funen, in the plant and flower motifs in her watercolours and working-class neighbourhoods of Copenhagen is now regarded as one of the most important or in rural Italy. figures from the circle. By contrast, Jens Birkholm became a major name on the Berlin Mads Rasmussen, who funded the collection art scene and is still awaiting reassessment in and building alike, was one of the most import- his native Denmark. ant industrialists in Faaborg. From 1904 on, he The four Faaborg natives worked closely with bought the occasional work by local artists to the two local artists Harald Holm and Søren adorn his own home, but in 1910 he decided to Lund, who had also completed apprenticeships build a larger collection of the artists’ works and as housepainters. However, artists from make it accessible to the public. The works for elsewhere also settled to paint in Faaborg the collection were selected by an acquisitions for long stretches at a time, particularly the committee that comprised the key members of painters Nicolaus Lützhøft, Karl Schou, Albert the artists’ circle and Rasmussen himself. 8 à CONTENTS This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed 110174_Faaborg Museum_cc19_r1a_.indd 8 16/04/2019 15.59 9 110174_Faaborg Museum_cc19_r1a_.indd 9 16/04/2019 15.59 10 110174_Faaborg Museum_cc19_r1a_.indd 10 16/04/2019 15.59 That is to say, the museum was a museum of directly to our senses.