The Danish landscape painter Anton Melbye was a celebrity for his contemporaries. This fame can be attributed primarily to his unique seascapes, or rather seascapes. He painted emotionally charged seascapes in large format with strong brushstrokes and dark colors, somewhere between symbolism and naturalism and flooded with light. This also earned him the nickname "painter of the sea". Actually Anton Melbye had wanted to become a sailor. He had therefore also learned the profession of a ship's carpenter, but because of a visual impairment he had to live out his weakness for the sea in a different way. Like his brother before him, he began studying painting at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen. He became a private student of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, a representative of the new "Copenhagen School". The teacher demanded of Anton Melbye not only intensive study of nature in theory, but also in practice. Thus, young Anton spent a lot of time painting and drawing in the great outdoors. What was seen and experienced there, however, should not be captured spontaneously, but in perspective, almost mathematically accurate.
After a certain period of apprenticeship, it was time for Anton Melbye to emancipate himself from Eckersberg and his objective teachings. He developed a more intuitive approach to nature, absorbing Romantic impulses and incorporating them into his spontaneous, loose pen-and-ink drawings. During an extended stay in Paris, he absorbed other artistic currents. Freed from academic, as well as national restrictions, he began to experiment with techniques and discover new modes of artistic expression. During this time he also visited the Normandy coast. While other open-air painters devoted their choice of motifs to the bathing tourism that was just emerging at the time, his gaze was directed to nature, the lonely coast and the constantly moving sea. Normandy, however, was to be only one of many travel stages. Melbye followed the French navy to the eastern Mediterranean when it stationed its fleet there shortly before the start of the Crimean War between the Ottoman Empire, its allies and Russia. But instead of devoting himself to the study of modern warships as planned, he was so fascinated by the exoticism of the Sea of Marmara, its intense light and lush vegetation, that he turned instead to landscape painting and charcoal drawing.
Finally, Anton Melbye settled in Hamburg on the Binnenalster. For his representative seascapes were sought-after collector's items, especially among the wealthy bankers and shipowners, merchants and shipbuilders of the Hanseatic city. In Hamburg, he then also lived through the German-Danish War and created, among other things, a painting of the sea battle off Helgoland. While both warring parties chalked up the outcome of the battle as a victory for themselves, the artist tried to adopt a neutral political stance.
The Danish landscape painter Anton Melbye was a celebrity for his contemporaries. This fame can be attributed primarily to his unique seascapes, or rather seascapes. He painted emotionally charged seascapes in large format with strong brushstrokes and dark colors, somewhere between symbolism and naturalism and flooded with light. This also earned him the nickname "painter of the sea". Actually Anton Melbye had wanted to become a sailor. He had therefore also learned the profession of a ship's carpenter, but because of a visual impairment he had to live out his weakness for the sea in a different way. Like his brother before him, he began studying painting at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen. He became a private student of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, a representative of the new "Copenhagen School". The teacher demanded of Anton Melbye not only intensive study of nature in theory, but also in practice. Thus, young Anton spent a lot of time painting and drawing in the great outdoors. What was seen and experienced there, however, should not be captured spontaneously, but in perspective, almost mathematically accurate.
After a certain period of apprenticeship, it was time for Anton Melbye to emancipate himself from Eckersberg and his objective teachings. He developed a more intuitive approach to nature, absorbing Romantic impulses and incorporating them into his spontaneous, loose pen-and-ink drawings. During an extended stay in Paris, he absorbed other artistic currents. Freed from academic, as well as national restrictions, he began to experiment with techniques and discover new modes of artistic expression. During this time he also visited the Normandy coast. While other open-air painters devoted their choice of motifs to the bathing tourism that was just emerging at the time, his gaze was directed to nature, the lonely coast and the constantly moving sea. Normandy, however, was to be only one of many travel stages. Melbye followed the French navy to the eastern Mediterranean when it stationed its fleet there shortly before the start of the Crimean War between the Ottoman Empire, its allies and Russia. But instead of devoting himself to the study of modern warships as planned, he was so fascinated by the exoticism of the Sea of Marmara, its intense light and lush vegetation, that he turned instead to landscape painting and charcoal drawing.
Finally, Anton Melbye settled in Hamburg on the Binnenalster. For his representative seascapes were sought-after collector's items, especially among the wealthy bankers and shipowners, merchants and shipbuilders of the Hanseatic city. In Hamburg, he then also lived through the German-Danish War and created, among other things, a painting of the sea battle off Helgoland. While both warring parties chalked up the outcome of the battle as a victory for themselves, the artist tried to adopt a neutral political stance.
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