CARL FORUP

(Danish, 1883-1939)

NEO-CLASSICAL BALLERINA

Oil on Canvas

53¾ x 46½ Inches

Signed Lower Center, "Forup"

 

A large and lyrical figural oil of a young ballet dancer seated backstage on a folding-stool and wearing a short, Doric chiton. The graceful subject is shown clasping her knee informally and directly engaging the viewer with a candid and familiar gaze. She is framed by various painted backdrops and movable elements of scenery including, in the background, a tall Ionic column that serves to emphasize the painting's Neo-Classical atmosphere.

 

Described by the art historian and critic Christian Engelstoft as a "romantic naturalist", this Danish Modernist first studied under Hans Agersnap and, later, with Ole Olson at Copenhagen's Royal Danish Academy (1902-1906, 1909, 1911). In 1908, Carl Forup married Eugenie Augusta Isabella Schmidt, who became his constant muse and frequent model and who may be the subject of this work.

 

Forup painted a broad range of subjects, from portraits and genre scenes to landscapes and was also a celebrated muralist and book illustrator. He exhibited widely and with success, including at the Danish Royal Academy from 1905, and also in Munich (1906) and Paris (1910), at the recently opened Henri Matisse School of Painting where he also painted with Matisse. Forup was the recipient of numerous prizes, medals and juried awards, including the Hielmstierne-Rosencrone award (1907), which allowed him to spend a year in Italy painting and studying the works of the Renaissance masters. In 1909, he also received the Larssen award and, subsequently, continued to travel and study throughout Europe.

 

Framed Dimensions: 57 x 2 x 50½ Inches

 

Reference:

Weilbach, Dansk Kunstnerleksikon, the Castle and Cultural Agency, Copenhagen; Ernest Luninski i: Ill. Tid. 1918, 516f; Hver 8. Dag 19.7.1918; Berl.Tid. 26.2.1933; 23.11.1939 (nekr.): Harry Søiberg og Chr. Engelstoft: C.F., 1938; Harald Quistgaard i: Kunstnerforen. af 18. Nov., dec. 1939; Niels Th. Mortensen i: Vejlekunstnere gennem 75 år, Vejle Kunstmus. 1977; Laura Jacobsen: Søllerød, set med malerøje, 1983, 237; Marit Werenskiold i: Louisiana Revy, 2, 1985, 45; et al.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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