LOT DETAILS

Materials:

Oil on canvas

Measurements:

32.00 in. (81.28 cm.) (height) by 46.25 in. (117.47 cm.) (width)

Markings:

Signed and dated lower right: PMonsted 1905

Provenance:

The Artist; Otto and Rigmor Nielsen, Copenhagen, Denmark, acquired from the artist prior to 1932; By descent to the present owner. Danish landscapist Peder Mork Monsted began his artistic career training with some of the most admired and rigorous academicians of his time before shifting to a fresher approach to nature that earned his reputation. He studied initially at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen with and . During his student years his travels took him to Rome and then to Paris where he studied for a short time at the studio of William Adolphe Bouguereau. Further studies with Peder Severin , at the art colony at Skagen in northern Denmark where artists came to paint en plein air, provided a reprieve from rigid academic traditions, and the opportunity to experiment with new trends of the Realist and Impressionist artists of Paris. While Monsted continued to travel and paint in various parts of Europe throughout his career, he is best known for his distinctive realistic depictions of the Scandinavian landscape, particularly Denmark's crisp snowscapes and lush river scenes of spring and summer. Painted in 1905, the present landscape depicts just such a tranquil view with spring flowers on the bank, overarching tree branches coming into leaf and bright sunshine illuminating all. Monsted's brushwork, while smooth, is applied in a variety of sizes and shapes—quite far from a licked academic surface. A larger version of the present painting, dated 1905-1906, gives a location of Koge (near Rosekilde, Denmark) and was sold at auction in 2000.