Mørk Mønsted, Peder (1859 -1941)

Baptismal Name: Peder Mørk Mønsted

Bale Mill in Grenaa, 10-12-1859-Fredensborg, 20-06-1941, painter

Nationality: Danish

Company: Denmark

Education:

As a boy, a student at Prince Ferdinand's craft and tegnesk., Aarhus; under Impr. of landscape painter Andreas Fritz; Kunstakad. KBH. (J.F. Vermehren, j. Exner, N. S) Oct. 1875-jan. 1879; a short while a student at P.S. Krøyer's malersk.; a pupil of W. A. Bouguereau in 1882-83 Paris 4 months in winter.

Travel and stay abroad:

Italy (Capri) and Switzerland 1882; Paris winter of 1882-83; Algeria and Switzerland 1889; The Mediterranean Sea with the Corvette St. Thomas 1892 with oph. in Greece and Egypt; later frequent trips in Europe.

Exhibitions:

Dec device., CPH. 1874; Charl. Spring 1879-88, 1890-94, 1896-97, 1900-02, 1912, 1914-41; Artist foren. of 18. Nov., 1882, 1921, 1930, 1932-35, 1937, 1942; North. Kunstudst., Cph. 1883, 1888; verdensudst., Paris, 1889; Kleis Kunsthdl., Cph. 1892; Internat. Kunstausst., the glass palace, Munich, 1892; North.

Art-Ausst., Lübeck, 1895; Raadhusudst., Cph. 1901; Foren. for the night. Art, 1913, 1923-25, 1927, 1929-30, 1933-34, 1937-38, 1942, 1959-60; KE 1922, 1931; Since. Doctor Portraits, Kbh. 1922; participated in more residential. equipped b., among other things.

at the Salon in Paris and the Glaspalast in Munich; Søllerød Pictures, Søllerød Town Hall 1974. Solo exhibitions: Winkel & M 1905 (s.m. Tony Müller); Charl. borg, 1909, 1919; Arhus Art foren. 1928; atelierudst. 1921, 1923-24, 1926-27, 1930-36. Auctions: Charl. borg 7.2.1887, 11.2.1889, 4.3.1895; Casino, Kbh. 28.10.1901; Kunstbygn., Århus 17.11.1925; Høybergs Auk., Cph. 29.9.1937; Winkel & M 30.11.1941 (estate).

Biography:

Peder M founded the Royal Danish Academy of art in Copenhagen acquaintance with late romantic detail realistic genre and landscape painting, first and foremost through the teachers of Christian Vermehren and j. Exner. But M chosen, like so many other artists of the same generation, to leave the Academy in favor of P.S. Krøyer's painting school and then a stay in Paris. M went to see one of today's most popular painters, W.A. Bouguereau, and got in his atelier deepened his knowledge of the international academic naturalism, which dominated at the major European exhibitions, and which is characterised by a virtuoso, sketch marked brush technique, used on a traditional landscape or genre motif, usually without much feeling and differentiated description of various colours, diverse light-and color characteristics. Mønsted gradually evolved this virtuosic naturalism, which quickly secured him the wide audience recognition, and after the turn of the century and until his death he appeared as one of the most popular landscape painters and definitely among the most affluent. The great success was largely a consequence of M's ability to develop a series of schematic landscape types, each of which could represent the epitome of a Norwegian, Italian or mostly Danish landscape. In motifs, built around quiet water, wood and forest, he specialized in portraying the sunlight between the crowns and under the forest's network of stems and branches of the river reflections of forest and sky, as well as snetunge winter landscapes with spring sensations, often all in the same picture. To the extent that M included characters in his pictures, they were mainly used as spot in order to stress the subject's idyllic nature, and only rarely got the characters and the anecdotal element such a prominent role as in the traditional genre pictures. Mønsted was extremely productive in order to satisfy the high demand. The artistic value of the works is therefore limited, later worn by too much anticipated effect and please sick in order to respond to the audience's aesthetic and educative expectations. But their scale has shadowed for the few excellent works which M especially performed before turn of the century. The unpretentious sketches from the early rejseår, inter alia. from Greece, North Africa and Italy, and several Danish landscape images in the following 10-15 years testify to a more nuanced nature observation and greater feeling for changing light-and color relationships, than the later works suggest. M is only represented on Danish museums with very few works, so is he on the other hand, almost a fixture at art auctions, especially after significant price increases in the 1980s. We will here be able to convince themselves about the causes of M not only popularity, but also about the origins of the art institution more dismissive attitude.