ARRECIFE | Christa Zaat

Christa Zaat



Carl Locher (Danish painter) 1851 - 1915
Skagen Rev fyrskib (The Lightship at Skagen Reef), 1892
oil on canvas
114.3 x 87.6 cm. (45 x 34.49 in.)
signed lower left
Skagens Museum, Skagen, Denmark

You can find this work at the Brøndum's dining room at Skagens Museum.

Catalogue Note Skagens Museum
This painting is Carl Locher’s second contribution to the decoration of the Brøndum’s dining room. Locher’s father, Jens Thielsen Locher (1825-69) earned his living by painting ship portraits, a profession also practised by Locher in his penurious youth and very much against his will.

In the picture, Skagen Reef lightship is placed almost in the centre on the horizon that divides the picture into two almost equal halves. The sea in the foreground is dark green and blue, and in the sky there are threatening dark grey clouds behind which the sun looks as though it could come out at any moment. The sails of two ships can be seen in the background.

Lightships have existed since the 17th century, but it was only at the beginning of the 19th century that they were placed in permanent positions. A lightship was equipped with a lighthouse lantern at the top of a solid mast, and they were anchored in a permanent position.

Skagen Reef extends four kilometres east north east as a natural extension of the Skaw Spit.The Danish lightships were red with a white cross or a white band on which the ships position was noted. Denmark has had 25 lightships altogether, all of which were functioning in the period 1828-1988. There was a lightship on Skagen Reef from 1878 to 1980, but today lightships have been replaced by large light buoys.

In addition to being a marine painting, Locher’s picture is also a document of cultural history, and it is interesting in relation to the Skagen painters because it is one of the rare paintings portraying modern developments in Skagen. The Skagen painters preferred to paint the original and unspoiled life of Skagen, which in the views of the artists excluded portrayals of modernity. In their pictures, they retained the people, especially the fishermen, in a world in which modern equipment for fishing and motorised ships were more or less forbidden. Although it might be possible to find the odd picture or two portraying the harbour in Skagen, it was not a motif that the Skagen painters were fond of painting.

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Carl Locher was a Danish realist painter who from an early age became a member of the Skagen group of painters.

Carl Locher was born on 21 November 1851 in Flensburg in the Duchy of Schleswig which was then part of Denmark. From an early age he took an interest in ships and received his first training from his father who painted ship portraits for a living. After the father died, Carl continued his business for a short while and went on several voyages with ships of the Royal Danish Navy. Struck by the grandeur of the Atlantic Ocean, a voyage to the Danish West Indies made a particular impression on him.
Even before he began his studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in 1872, he was encouraged by Holger Drachmann to spend a couple of months in Skagen, the artists colony in the far north of Jutland. He quickly completed paintings of the beach, some with fishing boats or wrecks. He also became interested in the horse-drawn carriage which travelled along the beach on its journey from Frederikshavn.
In the 1870s, Locher continued his studies in Paris but he visited Skagen whenever he was back in Denmark. Ultimately he had a house built there where he lived until his death.
Supported by the State, he opened an etching school for Danish artists in Copenhagen, where he taught until 1900. Skagen painters such as Anna Ancher and Michael Ancher and P.S. Krøyer attended the school.