Michael Ancher

Michael Peter Ancher (9 June 1849 – 19 September 1927) was a Danish realist artist, widely known for his paintings of fishermen, the Skagerrak and the North Sea, and other scenes from the Danish fishing community in Skagen.

Early life and education

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 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.

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 Skagerrak 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.

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 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 in 1883, the family moved to Markvej in Skagen.

Among other places, the works of Anna and Michael Ancher can be seen at the Skagens Museum, , the Frederiksborg Museum, The Hirschsprung Collection, and 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. which originally hung on the walls in the dining room at Brøndums Hotel.

Correspondence 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.

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. 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 pigments and overall characteristics of the style. 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.

Paintings