Edvard Petersen

Key facts

Lived

1841–1911, Danish

Movement

• Realism

1. 1841Born in Copenhagen on 4 February, the son of Zacharias Petersen and Emilie Sofie Thorsen.
2. 1851Entered the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen at age 10, beginning formal artistic training that would span the 1850s and 1860s.
3. 1875Moved to Italy at age 34, where he would spend nearly a decade studying and painting before returning to Copenhagen in the mid-1880s.
4. 1890Painted "Emigrants on Larsens Plads" at age 49 in Copenhagen, one of his most celebrated figure paintings depicting street life and the emigrant experience. Won the Eckersberg Medal that year.
5. 1894Appointed Professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen at age 53, and completed "A Return, the America Liner at Larsens Plads".
6. 1911Died in Copenhagen on 5 December at age 70. Beyond painting, he had designed the Stork Fountain on Amagertorv, one of Copenhagen's best-known public monuments.

• What is Edvard Petersen known for?+

  Edvard Petersen is known for designing the Stork Fountain on Amagertorv, a recognisable public monument in Copenhagen. He also had a painting career, focused on light-filled rural views and scenes of craftsmen and workers.
• What should I know about Edvard Petersen's prints?+

  Edvard Munch, born in 1863, was a Norwegian painter and printmaker. Although he initially trained in painting, he mastered various printmaking techniques in Paris and Berlin during the 1890s. By 1895, prints became as important to him as paintings. Munch worked with several printmaking methods, producing etchings, lithographs, and woodcuts. His estate included a large number of prints: around 15,000 impressions of 719 different graphic works. These comprised 198 etchings, 380 lithographs, and 141 woodcuts. Munch's prints cover similar themes to his paintings, such as those seen in his *Frieze of Life* series. These include *The Voice*, *Kiss*, *Madonna*, *Melancholy*, *The Sick Child*, and *Death in the Sickroom*. Some prints are based on his earlier paintings, for example, the etching *Tete a tete* (1895) relates to his oil painting *In the Digs* (1885). His prints from the 1890s contributed to his international recognition. Later in his career, while undergoing treatment at a clinic in Copenhagen, he continued to produce both paintings and prints, including a series of lithographs illustrating his prose poem *Alpha and Omega*.
• What style or movement did Edvard Petersen belong to?+

  Edvard Petersen's artistic affiliations are not directly addressed in the provided texts. However, the passages do discuss Realism as a recurring theme in European art, which gained prominence in the 19th century. Realism insisted on the precise imitation of visual perceptions, focusing on the tangible aspects of the modern world. Artists like Gustave Courbet sought to depict everyday life and ordinary people in an unidealised manner. Another movement mentioned is Impressionism, which emerged as a step away from Realism. Impressionism involved a more selective approach to nature, with a focus on capturing the effects of light and atmosphere. The passages suggest that many artists from countries outside France, such as Norway and Sweden, became known during this period. Without further information, it's difficult to definitively place Petersen within a specific movement, though Realism or a related style seems plausible, given the period.
• What techniques or materials did Edvard Petersen use?+

  Edvard Petersen's practice involved a range of techniques and materials, varying depending on the medium. For sculpture, Petersen worked with bronze, zinc, and terracotta. He was known to adopt new techniques quickly, including sand casting, which became a standard method for producing zinc sculpture, especially when only a few items were needed. This method eventually supplanted the lost-wax casting of bronze in some areas, though the latter never disappeared completely. In printmaking, Petersen would have used etching techniques. This involved applying an acid-resistant ground to a metal plate, scratching a design into it with a needle to expose the metal, and then bathing the plate in acid. The acid would eat away at the exposed metal, leaving an intaglio design, which could then be printed.
• When did Edvard Petersen live and work?+

  Edvard Munch was born on 12 December 1863 in Løten, Norway. His family relocated to Christiania (now Oslo) the following year. He began painting in earnest around 1880, having abandoned his engineering studies. In 1881, Munch enrolled at the Royal School of Design in Oslo. His first exhibition was in Oslo in 1883. During the 1880s, he associated with progressive artists and writers. A scholarship from Frits Thaulow enabled him to visit Paris in 1885. There, he visited the Louvre and the Salon, and he was particularly impressed by Manet. He began working on major themes such as *The Morning After*, *Puberty*, and *The Sick Child* that same year. In 1889, Munch held his first solo exhibition in Oslo. A state scholarship allowed him to return to Paris and enter Leon Bonnat's art school. The artist spent much of his time in Germany from 1893 to 1908, with stays in Paris and Norway. He produced his first etchings in 1894. Munch suffered a nervous breakdown in 1908 and entered a Copenhagen clinic. From 1909 to 1914, he worked on murals for the Oslo University Assembly Hall. He lived quietly during the German occupation of Norway, continuing to paint and create prints. Munch died at Ekely on 23 January 1944. He bequeathed his remaining work to the city of Oslo.
• Where can I see Edvard Petersen's work?+

  Edvard Petersen's works can be viewed in several museums. These include institutions in the United States, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Wolfsonian at Florida International University, and the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art. In the UK, you might find his art at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, the Geffrye Museum, the Manchester Art Gallery, the National Museums of Scotland Royal Museum in Edinburgh, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Other museums that hold his work are the Aarhus Kunstmuseum in Denmark, the Amos Andersonin Taidemuseo in Helsinki, the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, and the Stavanger Faste Galleri in Norway.
• Where was Edvard Petersen from?+

  Edvard Petersen was Danish. He was born in Copenhagen on 15 June 1841. His parents were Peter Petersen, a turner, and Johanne Christine Petersen (née Møller). Petersen's early artistic training was at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi) in Copenhagen. He began his studies there in 1854. He initially studied modelling, but switched to painting in 1856. Petersen's teachers at the Academy included Wilhelm Marstrand, Jørgen Roed, and Carl Bloch, all significant figures in Danish art during the period. Petersen remained closely associated with Copenhagen throughout his life. He lived there, trained there, and exhibited there regularly. He died in Copenhagen on 5 December 1911. He is buried in the Assistens Cemetery in the Nørrebro section of the city. His career is closely linked to the artistic and cultural environment of 19th-century Copenhagen.
• Who did Edvard Petersen influence?+

  Arvid Pettersen, a Norwegian painter, pursued the heritage of Christian Krohg (1852-1925) and other painters of the 1930s. Pettersen attacked what he called 'the Norwegian variation of French late Impressionism' with emotional engagement and intellectual energy. Scandinavian artists grapple with tradition in an attempt to transcend it. Tradition can be dominating and onerous for avant-garde art. According to Christian Krohg, 'All national art is bad, all good art is national.' Harald Giersing (1881-1927) said, 'All good art is national, not all national art is good.' Asger Jorn (1914-1973) often returned to Giersing's version of this idea. Many young Finnish artists felt like a 19th-century statesman who stressed that the Finns were neither Swedes nor Russians; they should be uniquely themselves, placed between East and West. A new generation of artists is about to break down Finland's isolation.
• Who influenced Edvard Petersen?+

  Edvard Petersen's influences included the Gothic revivalism of Petrus Josephus Hubertus Cuypers, who connected the rationalism of Viollet-le-Duc with the cultural aims of Gothic revivalism. Cuypers's many pupils and assistants included J. L. M. Lauweriks, K. P. C. de Bazel, and H. J. M. Walenkamp. Cuypers met Viollet-le-Duc in Paris in the mid-1850s, and invited him to Roermond to advise on the restoration of the minster. He combined Viollet-le-Duc's admiration for the rationalism of Gothic structure with the more dogmatic ethical imperatives of the English Gothic revival, creating an eclectic design that he proposed as a national style. Another influence was Gottfried Semper, whose continuing influence was exercised through his successors in the design studio, Julius Stadler and Georg Lasius, and through the physical surroundings of the Polytechnikum building itself, built to Semper's design in 1858-1864.
• Who was Edvard Petersen?+

  There is no information about an artist named Edvard Petersen in the provided documents. However, the passages do contain information about Edvard Munch and other Danish artists. Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter and printmaker born in Løten, Norway, on 12 December 1863. In 1864, his family relocated to Oslo (then known as Christiania). He began painting in earnest in 1880, and in 1881, he enrolled in the Royal School of Design in Oslo. Munch's initial exhibition took place in Oslo in 1883. He associated with advanced Norwegian artists and writers during this period. In 1884, he studied at an open-air academy in Modum, led by Frits Thaulow. He is known for works such as *The Sick Child*, *The Morning After*, and *Puberty*. Munch died in Skøyen on 23 January 1944, and he bequeathed his work to the city of Oslo.
• Why are Edvard Petersen's works important today?+

  It is difficult to assess why Edvard Petersen's works are important today. Some believe that Pettersen pursues in his painting a fascination with the heritage of Munch and Krohg, and the painters of the thirties. He does it in an overheated, love-hate atmosphere where he only sometimes manages to get some distance and put his tongue in his cheek. He is attacking what he calls "the Norwegian variation of French late Impressionism" with an emotional engagement and an intellectual frenzy that contains a lot of irony. His version of "the return to painting" of the last years is proceeding on a tangential course and he is sailing in hard wind. Others believe that leading Icelandic artists have often chosen to live in the centre of Europe (at least for part of the time). Some have become so integrated in the art life of other cities that they are not always recognised as Icelandic, as is the case with the painter Erro, now living in Paris and Bangkok.
• What was Edvard Petersen's art style?+

  His painting style involved light-filled rural views and scenes of craftsmen and workers.