Portrait of Ane Hedvig Brøndum

We present today's painting thanks to Skagens Kunstmuseer—one of the museums I really dream of visiting one day. Check their awesome collection in our archives! :)

Anna Ancher painted her mother countless times and the closeness of their relationship was documented in several letters. Mrs. Brøndum’s slightly tired expression and the rough hands folded in her lap testify to an industrious life as the manageress of the local hotel. She only retired at the age of 70 and spent a lot of time afterwards in a specific blue-coloured room at the hotel writing letters and reading the Bible. Her mother and sisters, Agnes, Marie, and Hulda, were evangelical Christians, a religious conviction that Anna and her two brothers did not share. They cultivated instead the community of the many cultural leftists and atheist artists in the artist' colony in Skagen. The portraits of her mother range from soulful depictions, which try to capture her mother’s pious nature, to more painterly works, where the focus is more on the formal aspects of color, shape, and composition.

See you tomorrow!