The Artist's Mother Ane Hedvig Brøndum in the Red Room

Anna Ancher, 1909

Download3000 × 1941 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Anna Ancher (Danish, 1859–1935)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 38.8 × 56.8 cm
Museum: SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
Rights: Public Domain Mark

The sunlight falls upon the wall like columns of light. It does so in the red room in the foreground and in the blue room in the background. In the reflected sunlight, we can see shadows cast by curtains and potted plants. In a wicker chair, supported by several cushions, sits Anna Ancher’s mother, Ane Brøndum, reading a book. The scene is peaceful, making Skagen seem very far removed from the hectic, modern life unfolding in the big cities here at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Time almost stands still; the moment has become an eternity. Even so, Ancher’s paintings are among the most modern created on the Danish art scene at the time. Her willingness to let the light carry the subject points far ahead into the future. So too does her painterly sensibility evident in the saturated combination of colours where pure blues and reds are allowed to dominate the picture (50 Favorites in the SMK Collection).