Ludvig (Frederik) Find

(b Vamdrup, Jutland, 16 May 1869; d Copenhagen, 24 Nov 1945). Danish painter. He began his art training in 1885, studying at the Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi in Copenhagen from 1886 to 1888. In 1888 he studied at the Artists' Study School under Frans Schwartz (1850-1917), and in 1900 he was a pupil of Kristian Zahrtmann. Though trained in a realistic tradition, Find sought to break away from it after seeing an exhibition in Copenhagen in 1888 that included work by Gauguin and Monet. He was also influenced by French Symbolism through his friendship with Mogens Ballin, who was connected to the circle around Gauguin and who was a member of the Nabis. Find travelled to Italy in 1893-4, where he studied early Renaissance art. These various influences can be seen in his work of the 1890s, particularly in a Young Man: The Norwegian Painter Thorvald Erichsen (1897; Copenhagen, Hirschsprungske Saml.), for which he was awarded a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. During a study trip to Paris in 1902 he developed a renewed interest in the Impressionists, especially Renoir, and the Neo-Impressionists Bonnard and Vuillard. At the same time he married, and from then on his family and their environment served as his range of motifs in a more liberated naturalism, where the decorative and pictorial elements of the painting complement each other in pure, light colours, as in Hanne and her Mother (1905; Esbjerg, Kstpav.). Find also painted portraits, including portraits of children, illustrated children's books, and he worked with ceramics and tin as a designer.

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