The artist colonies. Hornbæk & Arild

This special exhibition will, for the first time, bring together works from the two artistic milieus which emerged on both sides of the Sound in the latter half of the 19th century.

Artist colonies became a popular trend around the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s, with artists meeting over the summer to find joint inspiration and create art in the open air. In both Hornbæk and Arild, it was the quaint, old fishing villages, the local population, the fantastic light, the sea and the natural beauty of the region which drew the leading male and female artists of the day to the first artist colonies, which first sprang up from around the middle of the 1800s.

The epicentre in Arild, which is located on the eastern side of the Kullen peninsula in Sweden, was an inn named Mor Cilla (Mother Cilla), a gathering place for both Swedish and Danish artists alike. Some of the artists to come from within Sweden included Carl Fredrik Hill, Richard Bergh, Gustaf Rydberg, Elisabeth Keyser, Emilia Lönblad and Gisela Trapp among many others. Danish artists were also drawn to the outstanding beauty of the Kullen area, including C.F. Sørensen, August Jerndorff, P.S. Krøyer and Viggo Pedersen – the latter even founded a school for painters in the town.

These same artists also spent periods across the water in Hornbæk, on the north coast of Zealand in Denmark, where the charming local environment provided inspiration for evocative scenes drenched in light. They were often joined by artists such as Carl Locher, Viggo Johansen, Frants Henningsen, Kristian Zahrtmann, Holger Drachmann, L.A. Ring, Astrid Holm, Ebba Carstensen and Peter Raadsig.

It is these two living artistic milieus that this exhibition sets in focus and explores through a number of paintings from this special epoch in Swedish and Danish art history.

The Hornbæk & Arild Artist Colonies has been curated in collaboration with Danish critic and author, Henrik Wivel.

The exhibition is supported by the 15 June Foundation, the Arne V. Schlesch Foundation, the Augustinus Foundation, the Beckett Foundation, Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik’s Foundation, the Gangsted Foundation, Jørgen Kryger and Anne Ammitzbøll’s Foundation, the Knud Højgaard Foundation, Consul George Jorck and Wife Emma Jorck’s Foundation, the Letterstedt Society, the Swedish-Danish Culture Fund and the William Demant Foundation.