Christian Mølsted (1862-1930) View Of The Port Of Dragør Denmark Danish

Christian Mølsted
(1862 Dragør – 1930 Dragør)
View of the port of Dragør
Oil on canvas
H. 39.5 cm; L. 59.5 cm
Signed and dated lower right, 1914

Son of a fisherman, Mølsted was helped financially by a parent to complete his studies. After a stint in the field of engineering, he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, under the tutelage of the great painters of the time (F. Vermehren, J. Exner, C. Bloch). He exhibited in Charlottenborg from 1884, after stays in Paris and London where he discovered the new artistic waves. Graduating from the Academy in 1885, he specialized upon leaving as a marine painter. He then embarked on several ships and painted landscapes, such as historical scenes. It was these scenes that made him famous, deploying on canvas large compositions depicting the famous battles of the great Danish captains, between waves and cannonades, immersions and fires. The recreated atmospheres are the key to his compositions, sometimes misty, sometimes opacified by the smoke of cannons, or clear as crystal water.

Our canvas, created in line with this know-how, is a superb composition full of light, created in the port of Dragør, where the artist lives. The bright summer day unfolds its light tones, contrasted by the wooden enlargement of the building, partly placed in shadow. This relationship between rustic architecture and linear marine landscape is a feat that only northern painters know how to express.