Major works by H. A. Brendekilde

The viewing for auction 108 offers a rich opportunity to let oneself be enchanted by a world of light, art, colour and history and for a moment let everything else be forgotten. H. A. Brendekilde was one of the few artists who managed to create a captivating atmosphere in his paintings.

A short glimpse into a world and time now forgotten, a glimpse into a small story of life, that we are allowed to witness. In an impressive piece from Hjembaek, imagination gives no limit as to what the four young girls are so eagerly talking about. Has the oldest girl perhaps been to a celebration of some sort in her fine dress and is now telling all about it to the younger girls, who all listen carefully.

Brendekilde’s paintings are idyllic and beautiful, but they are more. He had the ability to compose a painting with something to say, an expression of his beliefs and values, all discretely portrayed with little girls, country houses and hollyhocks. These paintings are calm and light, but the reality is there if you take a closer look.

The apparently simple composition in this painting might not be so simple afterall. It was painted in 1922, Brendekilde is 65 years old. Just a few years before that he divorced his wife through more than 20 years and with that he left the good respected life in the upper classes. The same year he married Maren Kristine, whom we suppose was the love of his life. The two already had a 27 year-old son, Arne.

So Brendekilde was not a man that allows the outside world to dictate his life and neither does he appear to take much notice of the art critics of the time, who are not all impressed with his style. But even as a young man, he took great pride in being true to himself and his art, which is excactly what this painting shows. The mature artist here reflects what is dear and important to him. The calmness of the country side, where the church takes a central and sublime role, though not dominant. The close environment, family, children and the social life come to the front and make out the colourful and bright spot on an early and barren spring day, where naked trees and adults working set the background.

Today, Brendekilde is mostly known for the hollyhocks and the country houses. But he was a versatile artist who played a great role in the Danish social realism of that time with equally important religious philosophic works on his resume. There is much to enjoy and much to enterpret in the very large country road scenery with to girls holding the little one’s hands. This painting is in the same genre as the one mentioned above.

Another very interesting piece from the artist’s social realistic work, show a little poor girl hwo has sought shelter in the dark cold night when Death comes andlays his hand carefully and comfortingly on her head. In his childhood and youth Brendekilde himself had lived in poverty and had known hunger. This has no doubt given inspiration and debth to many of these works.

The versatility and artistic progress of H. A. Brendekilde is represented in this small collection of eight paintings. Some of them are sheer joy, a few others let the eye dig just a little deeper and by doing so place themselves in the already significant line of major works by this artist.