Worth Sharing: Lovely and Wonderful Things

 

                                     Sunshine In The Living Room by Carl Holsoe

Not too long ago, I was trolling around Pinterest and an image caught my eye and made me stop and simply stare.  It was a lovely portrait, and the artist's name listed was Carl Holsoe.  I found the image above as a stumble upon last night and again I was completely captivated and simply sat staring at the painting.   When an artist's work makes me stop dead in my tracks and causes me to feel I am in a familiar room, I pay attention to the artist!

This is the image that originally stopped me in my pursuit of any thing and every thing on Pinterest.

Carl Vilhelm Holsoe was born in March 1863 and died in November 1935.  He was born in  Aarhus, Denmark.  His father was a well known architect.  Finding information about this artist has been difficult.  His younger brother Niels also was a painter.   

He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 1882 until 1884.  His work was strongly influenced by  Dutch master painter, Vermeer.   In 1885, He studied under Peder Severin Kroyer, one of the most influential artists of the time.   Along with Vilhelm Hammershoi, and Kroyer, Holsoe showed an increasing interest in the study of light and shade, and of how they were reflected in or illuminated surfaces and objects in an interior.  

In 1886 he made his debut at the Charllotenborg  December exhibit with the painting, "Interior".  

                                                           Interior ca 1886

In 1888, Holsoe received several stipends and was able to show his work both in Denmark and abroad, including Italy.

In 1889, Holsoe received an honorable mention for his works at the Exposition Universelle de Paris and two years later was awarded a medal in Munich where he displayed his works frequently until 1918.

In 1894, Holsoe married  Emilie Heise.  His  works from that period frequently feature her at work, sewing, reading, setting a table to rights.    It's as though he was able to capture snapshots of moments.   More often than not, many of his paintings pictured a solitary female figure involved in some quiet activity, very often with their back to the viewer or  seen only in profile.  It lends a sense of intimacy to his works, I think, that serve to draw you into the scene and creates a sense of stillness, timelessness, and tranquility.

Just as intriguing are the glimpses of  what undoubtedly were his real life.  A cello and spinet so we know the family were musical.   His wife setting a table for tea.   In the video featured below in this post, he shows his wife nursing a baby.   Children playing at the top of a stair.  A young daughter.  Women reading or sewing or peeling vegetable, usually a familiar woman.   We know we've seen her before and so we drawn in still further.

He intrigues one to look deeper with open doorways reflecting another room beyond.  Often the main room is the interior only but the room beyond holds a figure working, reading or contemplating life outside a window.  Holsoe had a gift for drawing one into the painting and encouraging our natural curiosity to look still more closely.

Pieces of furniture become familiar as we see them in different lights and similar pieces in other rooms as well as noting that a room now holds more furniture and more paintings as time goes on.  Then there are the still life pictures of objects sitting on a dresser, in candlelight and in sunlight to intrigue us still further. 

While his primary focus was interiors, he also painted still life paintings, landscapes and florals.

                                                          A Stroll In the Orchard

I found his landscapes not as bright and lovely as his paintings of interiors.  He seems to not catch  the light in landscapes quite as well as he catches it's movement through a window but the landscapes are full of detail and worth looking at closely.

Holsoe was often overshadowed by his contemporary and friend Vilhelm Hammershoi, with whom he started an Academy, but I find Holsoe's domestic point of view so refreshing and appealing.   Each room is a place in which one feels they might simply step into and join in the living.

I find his self portrait most interesting.  In it he appears a man who is scarred and unattractive but a painting done of himself, his brother and three other friends by Hammershoi shows him to be merely a large handsome man, not in the least marred.

self-portrait

                                 Holsoe is on the far right in this painting by Vilhelm Hammershoi

I prefer Holsoe's work for the color and the movement of the figures, even in sitting still, appears natural and the colors appear true to life.  

I've really enjoyed getting to know this artist, though the details of his life are scarce.  I've had to really research hard to find out the few details that I did.   However, his work is prolific on the internet and I shall be availing myself of the opportunity to view his paintings again and again.

The music on this video which features Holsoe's works is lovely and well worth listening to as background music.