Online Extra 712

Samples of the two previews

At the preview in Vejle you will find a maritime atmosphere evoked by Alfred Olsen's painting "Sailing Ships in Rough Waters by a Pier with Persons", estimated at DKK 10,000. You will also be able to enter into the special atmosphere that surrounds two Italian women harvesting grapes in the autumn. This almost exotic harvest scene was painted in the Italian town of Vendimia and is estimated at DKK 8,000. As far as prints are concerned, our Harbour department offers for example two aquatints with sporting dogs by Jean Pierre Marie Jazet, from a painting by Alfred de Dreux. These popular hunting motifs in original antique frames are characterised by a freshness of colour as well as detail. The two aquatints combined have been estimated DKK 6,000 – 8,000.

The preview in the Harbour department also presents a Skagen painting of a very high quality, i.e. Michael Ancher's "A Fisherman with Hat and Pipe Gazes across the Sea", estimated at DKK 10,000 – 15,000. In this study, Ancher's masterly simplicity captures the concentration of the fisherman who is undoubtedly studying the horizon for signs of a turn in the weather. Other evocative paintings include a Bornholm interior painted by H.C. Koefoed (1849-1921) and estimated at DKK 10,000 – 15,000. Here the painter invites us into a living room adorned with a grandfather clock and ship's portrait.

Flowers in the arts

In our Harbour department you may experience Danish as well as foreign flower paintings. The Danish works include Christine Løvmand's (1803-1872) still life with strawberries and buttercups in centrepiece on a table. Christine Løvmand was a pupil of both C.W. Eckersberg and J.L. Camradt, and stylistically she is very close to her contemporary colleague, the flower painter I.L. Jensen (1800-1856). Christine Løvmand's still lives are often characterised by flowers and fruits in what is usually a precious centrepiece on a window sill or a marble slab. This little gem of a painting is estimated at DKK 10,000.

The auction also features a still life with pink roses by an unidentified painter who is described, however, as belonging to the school of I.L. Jensen. The painting was presumably created by a lady of the higher classes. Earlier, it was very much in vogue for ladies to take lessons in the art of flower painting, but since flower painting was placed low in hierarchy of the arts, female painters did not always obtain the recognition they deserved. Today, this particular painting is estimated at DKK 6,000.

Among the foreign flower pieces we find for example a couple of still lives by the Dutch painter Adriana Sophia Fontein (1888-1965). These paintings differ from the Danish school, not merely historically and geographically, but also in their very form. They are more sketchy and impressionist and thus not as minute in their execution as the Danish 19th century still lives we are familiar with. Together, Fontein's two paintings are estimated at DKK 3,000 – 5,000.

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanova

As something quite spectacular indeed, the Harbour preview presents two watercolours by Grand Duchess Olga (1882-1960). She is known for her tranquil and colourful paintings, by no means a reflection of the stormy life that took her from the Imperial Russian court and sent her through two marriages and the Russian Revolution and into many years and poverty and exile in Denmark and Canada.

It was Grand Duchess Olga's mother, the Danish-born Empress Dagmar, who discovered her young daughter's artistic talents. In Denmark, Dagmar had studied with Heinrich Bunzen, and she had a great deal of artistic insight and knowledge. She discovered the special nature of her daughter who was able to concentrate much better in her school lessons when she was allowed to make drawings while paying attention. Empress Dagmar, therefore, arranged for her to be trained by the painter Stanislaw Johannowitsch Zukowski (1873-1944). Since then the Grand Duchess would paint almost every day.

During the Russian Revolution, from 1917-1919, Grand Duchess Olga was kept prisoner in the Crimea by The Black Sea along with several other members of the imperial family, her mother included. Empress Dagmar fled to England in 1919, but later that year she went to Denmark where she took up residence at Hvidøre Hall near Klampenborg. Grand Duchess Olga, her common born husband Nikolaj Kulikovsky and their two sons, however, did not leave Russia until 1920 when they went to Denmark and took up residence with Dagmar. Grand Duchess Olga was an indomitable person, and in her new marriage she managed to maintain great joie de vivre. She was capable of doing so, partly because she continued to paint. After Empress Dagmar's death in 1928, the Grand Duchess and her husband bought the farm Knudsminde in Ballerup where they made a living as farmers. Grand Duchess Olga's works were traditionally naturalistic, and they were very popular with the general populace and at Charlottenborg in Copenhagen. Furthermore, the additional income her painting provided helped make life in exile a little more comfortable.

The Grand Duchess and her husband lived in Ballerup until 1948. For reasons of security in the turmoil that followed WWII they decided to immigrate to Canada. Here Olga died in 1960 as the world's last grand duchess – a poor widow, but with her personality and dignity unbroken.

The present watercolours are classics in the favourite genres of the Grand Duchess: One is a still life with flowers on a garden table, while the other is a summer's landscape. These paintings were made in Denmark and they both testify to her brilliant skills in portraying nature and its flowers. Each work is estimated at DKK 12,000 – 15,000.

Auction 712 takes place Wednesday, March 21st, and at the Department of Older Paintings we sincerely hope you will enjoy it very much.

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