Let There Be Light

Right at the northern tip of Denmark, where two seas meet under endless skies: Skagen, a fishing village that developed into a late 19th-century artists' colony. One of those artists was actually from Skagen; her parents ran Brøndum's Hotel in the village. Anna Brøndum went on to become Denmark's most famous woman painter: Anna Ancher. 

You won't find any paintings by her in any public collection in Britain (we know, we've used that line before when writing about several other artists), and, rather oddly, she doesn't even get a mention in Katy Hessel's The Story of Art without Men. The illumination you need is provided at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in south-east London, in Anna Ancher: Painting Light. She had a way with light, coming in through windows and casting shadows on walls, reflecting on the sea, breaking through the trees in her garden. These are generally very intimate, understated pictures, yet sometimes quite breathtaking.  

Virtually all the works in this show are from the Skagens Museum, just across the road from Brøndum's Hotel and very close to the house that Anna and her artist husband Michael lived in for many years. And the interiors of both the hotel and the house figure repeatedly. We've never made it to Skagen, sadly; we had a trip planned in 2020 but you-know-what got in the way. A series of videos half way through this exhibition sets Skagen and the Anchers in context.  

We'll start off in the hotel, in what was known as the Blue Room. This painting depicts the Anchers' daughter Helga, also in blue, perched on a chair, knitting or crocheting. But the focus is very much the sunlight coming in from the sliver of window to the right. It falls most notably on the wall at the back, casting a shadow from the pot plant on the windowsill; you also see the sun's rays on the carpet, cut in half by the girl's silhouette. Perhaps the brightest point in the whole painting is Helga's blonde hair, bathed in sunlight. 

Very Impressionistic -- Ancher had made a couple of visits to France in the 1880s -- and quite mesmerising. When displayed in Copenhagen in 1892, though, one newspaper critic complained that certain artists had become "too modern". 

More than two decades on, that critic, if still alive, would surely have been horrified by another Ancher picture, this time of the annex of the hotel. There's not a thing in it, except the light. 

It's rather an odd choice of subject -- the corner of an empty room with one door closed, key in lock, and another open, leading into an empty room -- yet it's captivating. The rectangular-shaped blocks of light on the pale walls and door, ranging from cream through many shades of yellow to golden orange, are almost like a puzzle. Where exactly is the source of the rays? The lines of the floorboards and open door draw you in through the space and the billowing green curtain gives a feel of airiness. 

It's a picture that might remind you of the often unpeopled interiors by Ancher's Danish contemporary, Vilhelm Hammershøi, though Hammershøi wasn't part of the Skagen group. 

Of course, light streaming in through windows was a feature of Dutch Golden Age painting -- Johannes Vermeer in particular -- and there's no mistaking the Dutch influence in one of the earliest paintings by Ancher in this show, which is also one of the first pictures you see. 

The scullery, the preparation of food, the red skirt and an open door to a room beyond. You could easily be in 17th-century Holland. The curtain that shields the maid from the gaze of passers-by in the street also adds a golden glow to the cramped dark workspace, providing a hint of Ancher's fascination with the rays of the sun. And we loved those carrots on the trestle table on the left, almost protruding out of the painting.  

Ancher's husband Michael appears in a number of the paintings on show in Dulwich, most notably eating his Lunch Before the Hunt. You'll note the dog sitting attentively, perhaps looking forward to getting a morsel from his master's plate. It's a very homely scene, and the distinctive yellow settee in the Anchers' house in Skagen is another repeated motif. But your eye is, as ever, drawn to the sunlight, distilled through the windows and curtains, on the wall behind the sitter.  

Interiors are very much the mainstay of Ancher's work, but it's time to move outdoors, for some views that have an air of the abstract about them.

The Old Window is again one of those pictures that doesn't seem to have much to it. A detail of a white-painted window from the artists' home, surrounded by greenery, but lifted onto another plane by the shocking, absolutely thickly applied red of the geraniums in the centre. A real eye-catcher.  

Meanwhile, just outside the house in Skagen is the street called Daphnesvej. 

Another painting where the subject is thoroughly mundane; the sandy road surface takes up the largest part of the image. But just look at the shadows cast by the houses on the right, while the ruts cut by carriage and cart wheels lead your eye to the house at the end. There's no real focus here, just almost abstract shapes and nuanced colours. But something intriguing and alluring about the picture holds your attention.

Ancher had long been thought of as mainly a painter of interiors, but a whole hoard of landscape sketches were uncovered about a decade ago. We were particularly struck by this undated Blue Sunset, which is in the final room of the exhibition. 

It's that same fascinating sunlight, isn't it, with the sky and the sea almost merging into one another as the day ends. And again, this is an almost abstract canvas. 

Overall, this is a very enjoyable show, though a handful of religious or spiritually themed paintings near the end left us rather cold. If you're in need of some extra light exposure amid the winter gloom, Anna Ancher in Dulwich may provide the boost you're looking for. 

Practicalities

Anna Ancher: Painting Light is on at the Dulwich Picture Gallery until March 8. It's open from 1000 to 1700 Tuesdays to Sundays, and standard tickets cost £20 including a Gift Aid donation, £18 without. To be sure of getting in when you want to, you can book online here. It was quite full when we went on a Tuesday lunchtime. Allow 60-75 minutes to explore the show and watch the accompanying videos. Tickets also cover entry to the gallery's permanent collection, which includes a number of Rembrandts. 

The gallery is about 10 minutes walk from both West Dulwich station, for trains from Victoria, and North Dulwich, for trains from London Bridge.

Images

Anna Ancher (1859-1935), Sunlight in the Blue Room, 1891. Image courtesy of Skagens Museum
Anna Ancher, Interior, Brøndum’s Annex, c. 1916. Image courtesy of Skagens Museum

Anna Ancher, The Maid in the Kitchen, 1883-86, The Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen
Anna Ancher, Lunch Before the Hunt, 1903, Skagens Museum 
Anna Ancher, The Old Window, 1914, Skagens Museum 
Anna Ancher, Daphnesvej, c. 1915, Skagens Museum 

Anna Ancher, Blue Sunset, undated, Skagens Museum