Hans Andersen Brendekilde Painting by Paul Meijering

About "Hans Andersen Brendekilde Painting"

by Paul Meijering

About the artwork

Realistic acrylic painting and portrait of Danish painter and designer Hans Andersen Brendekilde, painted by the Dutch fine artist Paul Meijering - the original painting is 90 x 120 cm and part of a permanent collection.

Hans Andersen Brendekilde, born Hans Andersen (Brændekilde, Funen, 7 April 1857 - Jyllinge, 30 March 1942) was a Danish painter and designer. He painted in a naturalistic style.

Brendekilde was born in a poverty-stricken farming environment in rural Funen, near Odense. In his youth, he worked as a farmhand, was trained as a bricklayer, but was eventually able to study sculpture at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen. There, he met his lifelong friend Laurits Andersen Ring and decided to become a painter. To avoid name confusion with Ring, he, like Ring, took the name of his birthplace.

In the 1880s, Brendekilde and Ring worked intensively together on the island of Funen and influenced each other mutually. Both took simple peasant life as their theme.

Brendekilde mainly painted landscapes and genre works in a naturalistic style. His early work has a strong social slant. Later, he would also show Impressionist influences, especially in his use of colour, although he stuck to his original style more than Ring. After the turn of the century, his work did become more idyllic and somewhat sentimental, often depicting the elderly and children. He made trips to Italy, Egypt and Syria. Towards the end of his life, he would increasingly incorporate religious motifs into his paintings.

Brendekilde often made the frames to his paintings himself, as an extension of the artwork. He also designed stained-glass windows and ceramics. He died in 1942, aged almost 85. Much of his work can be seen at the Fyns Kunstmuseum in Odense, as well as in Copenhagen.