Karl Madsen

Atmospheric painting was a reaction against realism in art that took place around 1900. In order to express inner mood and feelings, artists abandoned landscape painting in daylight in order to reduce superfluous and disturbing details. The movement had a clear symbolic dimension and sought out to convey something eternal hidden in nature.

Karl Madsen was greatly influenced in the early 1880s by the radical new departure in Danish culture led by the literary critic George Brandes, the theorist behind the "Modern Breakthrough” of Scandinavian culture, whose lectures at Copenhagen University Madsen followed, and Holger Drachman, who published his strong views on Danish art as well as the disappointing conditions at the Art Academy in Copenhagen. Madsen's controversial conception of art and the trends of the times as well as his own economic problems were probably behind his decision to become a professional writer. On Drachmann's recommendation, he became an art critic with Dagavisen in 1881. As a frequent contributor to Politiken and other periodicals, he became one of Denmark's most influential art commentators and critics. As a museum expert, Madsen became recognized as an authority on Dutch art and brought about a reassessment of Danish art in the first half of the 19th century, especially with his biography of Johan Lundbye in 1895. He was the director of Statens Museum for Kunst from 1911 to 1925, and the first director of Skagens Museum from 1928 to 1938.

Madsen first went to Skagen in 1874 on the invitation of Michael Ancher whom he had met during his first year at the Art Academy in Copenhagen. Madsen regularily returned to Skagen over the years to come. It is no exaggeration to state that Madsen's work painted there shows that he was one of the key figures among the Skagen Painters.

In 1907, the Danish artist Niels Skovgaard (1858-1938) painted a picture (fig. 1) entitled "Dawn" (63 x 75 cm, sold for 16 000 euros at Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, 9 November 2020) which is clearly inspired by the present work. Interestingly, Skovgaard lived in Lyngby, a rural suburb of Copenhagen where Madsen also lived.