Fine Art Tuesday

 

Several evenly-spaced beech trees planted along a stream before the widespread use of coal for heat. These beech were probably lopped for their wood (pollard) earlier in their lives but were allowed to revert as coal became cheap and labor became expensive. If you look closely you will see deer beneath the trees, maybe sniffing around for a few beechnuts that made it through the winter.

Peder Mørk Mønsted born 1859 in Denmark. Died 1941.

Mønsted is notable for capturing the Danish countryside in a realistic, yet romantic way. He was a commercial success while alive as newly-wealthy, urban buyers were eager to buy pictures that capture a slower, kinder, more rural Denmark...the Denmark of their grandparents if you will.

That does not explain why Mønsted's paintings are in high demand today and most of them are lodged in private collections.

That may be due to Hans Christian Andersen's influence on children worldwide. May Thielgaard Watts instantly felt an affinity to Denmark the first time she visited. It was only upon reflection that she realized that she had always been able to visualize Demark from the magically evocative prose of Andersen. She felt instantly at home as she walked in Demark, transported back to the simpler times of her childhood.

Part of Mønsted's appeal is the layered level of detail. It is only upon closer inspection that we see the ripples in the water and then a little bit later the swallow that is skimming the surface and just took a drink.

Most artists would have been content to paint smudged-generic-white-barked trees. Mønsted paints enough detail to clearly identify these as birch (drooping twigs is a clear give away). This painting is proof that artistry is more important than having 600 different tubes of pigment in your satchel.

I have to wonder if the water the horse is drinking is run-off from the road and businesses.

Still water would be stagnate unless it is "pumped" by the tides and this image is at high-tide. Much of Denmark is very flat and all of it is close to the sea.

Notice the close juxtaposition of the cottages on the right and the enchanted, moss-carpeted forest on the left with the clear suitable-for-brown-trout stream separating them. Who would not want to live there?

Just checking to see if anybody reads to the end of these Fine Art Tuesdays. This was Gary Larson, not Peder Mønsted.