Anna Ancher

Anna Ancher: Painting Light 
at the Dulwich Picture Gallery 
until 8 March 

In the first of my two talks about Scandinavian artists, I will introduce the Dulwich Picture Gallery’s wonderful exhibition of paintings by Anna Ancher. I confess that her name was not a familiar one, but then I am not familiar with Denmark, where she is one of the stars in the early modernist firmament. All I will say for now, is that she has been a superb discovery for me!

Her works are calm, considered and richly coloured, drawing on her own personal experience of life in rural Skagen, at the very northernmost tip of the country. The luminosity of her paintings, and her ability to capture light – even in the darkest of situations – makes her work more profound than an initial glance might suggest. Her free handling of paint and the sense of immediacy aligns her with the Impressionists, although her interest in her subjects’ lived experience is more akin to the Realists – and thus, I think, to Anders Zorn who I will talk about next week. 

Please remember, I do not record my talks.