Drachmann, Holger (1846 - 1908)

Holger Henrik Herholdt Drachmann second name:
Copenhagen, 09-10-1846-Haddon, 14-01-1908, writer, painter
Nationality: Danish
Company: Denmark

Education:
Stud. 1865; drawing underv. with F.F. Helsted and sheets. F. Jensen; opt. Kunstakad. KBH. Oct. 1866, left modelsk. Conn. kl. April 1870, decided only to grow marine painting; a pupil of Carl Emil Baagøe; a pupil of C.F. S.

Travel and stay abroad:
Scotland and the Mediterranean Sea, 1867; London 1870-71; France 1877-78; resident in Hamburg the first half of 1890erne; United States o. 1900.

Exhibitions:
Charl. Spring 1869-74; North. Konstutst., Gothenburg, 1881; Artist foren. of 18. Nov., 1882, 1942; Kleis ' Kunsthdl., Cph. 1892; Raadhusudst., Cph. 1901; Technical. SK., Skagen 1908; Skagen Painters, Then. centralbibl., Flensburg 1977. Solo exhibition: Dec. 1901 (s.m. Carl Hadi); Poet King's Tomb, Skagen's Mouse. 1988.

Biography:
Holger Drachmann was first a painter, later a poet, perhaps due to a coincidence. He had works for both arts and alternated between them throughout his life, and came in both of them the tradition. In his young years, 1865-74, was Drachmann often on Bornholm. In addition to the paintings can be found from these years part pottery from l. Hjorths fabrik in Rønne, which Drachmann has decorated with søstykker etc. He made his debut as a painter and poet, 1872 as 1869 with the tales with charcoal and Chalk. His early paintings are completely in the teacher, C.F. S style, although major celebrities like Anton Melbye also may have spurred him to follow. Drachmann's articles for the New Danish Maanedsskrift aroused interest, Georg Brandes and it was like his protégé that Drachmann achieved recognition as a poet, he is hardly so quickly would have gotten as a painter. Under the impression from the Chr. Blache, visited Drachmann Skagen in 1871. There he found a population and a nature that suited equally well to be depicted with the pen as with brush, and with few interruptions came Drachmann again the next 15 years and slipped naturally into the circle of artists who gathered there. In particular, in småskitserne be seen Drachmann receiving impressions of Norwegians Fritz Thaulow and Christian Krohg. The winter of 1877-78, he was taken by P.S. Krøyer in Paris, and in the autumn of 1878, he painted side-by-side with Karl Madsen in Brittany. Without even being French apprentice, was so close to Drachmann young painters who in 1870ernes ending efteruddannede in Paris. As a poet, where he felt more and more confident on its artistic means, subterfuge it as a painter. During the 1880s laid the Drachmann distance between himself and "the French", among other things. in the novel With the broad Brush, written 1885-87 as a showdown with the concept of "reality picture", where he lashed out hard after his old friends, especially painter Krøyer. Drachmann's criticism, however, was not only negative, he called for some of the artistic qualities, as were the order of the day in the following decade. Although the sketch pad always followed Drachmann, he painted not much in 1890erne, where his fame as a poet was unmatched. Around 1895 wrote Drachmann, a number of melodramer, among others. Renaissance. At the same time, not without influence, he brought from Arnold Böcklin, painting the sea's daughter, a mermaid as naked and voluptuous is drowned at a desert Beach, while the ship with the young sailor she loved, been shipwrecked in the distance. It was created in cooperation with Northern magnate Carl Healthy-Hansen, who painted the Mermaid, and stands alone as an artistic experiment in Holger Drachmann's painting. In 1901, resident Drachmann himself with his third wife in Skagen Vesterby in own House, Villa Pax. The marriage was not happy, and there was still further from the successes. After the failure at the Royal. Theatre with adventure game Mr. Oluf he rides, commissioned on the occasion of Drachmann's 60års birthday in 1906, deeply shaken, he fled to Skagen, and just as in other periods, where his poetry was in crisis, he turned all his energy toward the painting now. Could the Danish poet King not poems more, he could at least paint. In his final years painted a number of depictions of the skagensbanen Drachmann nature which is far freer than anything he had previously done. Drachmann is in the nearest posterity has been criticized, but he managed in his best images to express the same force as in his poetical works.