Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
Will He Round the Point?
Michael Ancher · Realism & Academic
- Artist
- Michael Ancher (1849–1927)
- Date
- 1885
- Dimensions
- 93 x 109.7 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Skagens Museum, Skagen, Denmark
This painting shows a group of fishermen in heavy oilskins and sou'westers standing on a windswept dune, anxiously watching a boat struggling through rough sea, which we cannot see, as it tries to round the dangerous point of Skagen.
A closer look
The men stand close together, shoulders hunched against the wind, some looking through a telescope, others simply staring out to sea. Their faces are tense and serious: in Skagen, shipwrecks and drownings were part of everyday life, and many of these men served in the lifeboat crew. The central figure is Lars Kruse, a fisherman famous for having saved many lives. Ancher painted the fishermen as heroes of modern life, with dignity and without sentimentality, in muted greys, browns and blues.