Hans Ole Brasen (1849-1930) The Magpie Denmark

Hans Ole BRASEN
(Hilerod 1849 – Copenhagen 1930)
The magpie
Oil on canvas
H. 29 cm; L. 33.5 cm
Signed and dated: 18 HB 74

Exhibition: 1874, Charlottenborg Salon

From the age of fourteen, Hans Brasen began his artistic apprenticeship in his hometown of Hilerod. Encouraged by his master Ernst Schmiegelow who noticed his talent, he left for the Royal Danish School of Fine Arts in Copenhagen where he was a student from 1867 to 1874. Two years later he discovered Italy with his master Rasmussen, pushing the luminosity of his paintings towards the freshness sought today in his work, unusual for the time in Denmark. Brasen's painting is mainly composed of scenes from popular daily life, between shepherds and their sheep and water carriers on sunny paths, children dozing after a snack in the sun, etc.

It was during his last year of study at the School of Fine Arts that Hans Brasen created our luminous canvas. The central subject of the magpie placed on agricultural tools on a foggy morning reminds us of the very famous composition by Claude Monet, created a few years earlier in Etretat. Did Hansen have the opportunity to see this work and be inspired by it? Letting a detail of the composition become the main subject is not given to every artist, not to mention the atmosphere of the work.