Hans Andersen Brendekilde

[Andersen, Hans] (b Br?ndekilde, Fyn, 7 April 1857; d Jyllinge, 30 March 1942). Danish painter, glass designer and ceramicist. He trained as a stonemason and then studied sculpture in Copenhagen at the Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi (1877-81), where he decided to become a painter. In 1884 he changed his name from Andersen to Brendekilde after his place of birth, as he was constantly being confused with his friend Laurits Andersen Ring, who moreover also took the name of his birthplace. In the 1880s Brendekilde and Ring painted together on Fyn and influenced each other's work. Brendekilde's art had its origin in the lives of people of humble means and in the country environment of previous centuries. He painted landscapes and genre pictures. He himself was the son of a woodman, and his paintings often contain social comment, as in Worn Out (1889; Odense, Fyn. Kstmus.), which shows the influence of both Jean-Fran?ois Millet and Jules Bastien-Lepage. Brendekilde was a sensitive colourist, influenced by Impressionism, for example in Harvesters, Raagelund (1883; Odense, Fyn. Kstmus.). Sometimes his works were provided with distinctive carved frames, which themselves expand and complement the narrative of the picture. Around 1905 he began to depict the idyllic, though keeping the same range of motifs, depicting farm environments with hollyhocks and kindly old women and infants against white walls, without the earlier refined treatment of colour. He also painted landscapes on his journeys to Italy, Egypt and Syria. In his later years he painted large pictures with religious motifs. He also made ceramics with fairytale motifs at the Kahler factory in N?stved, and he was Denmark's first glass designer, working briefly at the Fyns Glasvoerker.

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