Greenlandic gems

The Denmark Expedition

The purpose of the Denmark Expedition was to map the coast of Northern Greenland and the waters around Peary Land. The scientific project headed by Mylius-Erichsen unquestionably fulfilled contemporary expectations. The group created quite a stir, for instance, by succeeding in mapping the entire North-Eastern coast and its big inlets, including the 200 kilometres deep Denmark Fjord. As a member of this expedition, the painter Aage Bertelsen (1873-1945) was expected to create a visual, historical documentation of this sensational project.

Aage Bertelsen’s documentary works

Aage Bertelsen made many sketches, studies and paintings during the expedition. Among the main works we find a collection of twelve documentary paintings that were made at the places where the Denmark Expedition came to a halt. Such places could be quite rough. The Bertelsen family tells of the conditions Aage found himself in on the Eastern coast of Greenland when he painted these paintings. It was so cold that his brush strokes could not exceed a length of about three centimetres – otherwise paint, brush and canvas would simply freeze together.

It is four of these twelve paintings that are now offered for sale at the auction. These paintings were painted in 1907 with motifs from Mallemuk Mountain, Peary’s Cairn and Hundeskrænten near Hyde Fjord, and on the obverse and verso sides of the paintings the painter himself has often stated the year, the month and indications of locality. These paintings, then, are historical documentations – which indeed was what Aage Bertelsen was assigned to create – not only of a part of the expedition’s itinerary, but certainly also of the grandeur of Greenland’s exceptional nature.

In addition to his documentary paintings, Aage Bertelsen also made several larger paintings when the weather was somewhat milder during the Denmark Expedition, and at this online auction you will be able to acquire one of them - "From Pustervig on Greenland" from 1908. Incidentally, this painting comes with Aage Bertelsen's tie pin.

Home again

After the Denmark Expedition, Aage Bertelsen found it hard to let go of his experiences in Greenland, and he kept making paintings from his old sketches. Incidentally, the online auction also includes one of Aage Bertelsen’s later Greenland paintings, painted in 1938 from an older sketch.

Read more about the auction