Julius Paulsen

1860 – 1940

Danish painter. He studied at the Kongelige Akademi for de Skønne Kunster, Copenhagen (1879-82), but found the training there uninspired and soon attached himself to more radical artists such as Peder Severin Krøyer and Laurits Regner Tuxen. A turning-point in his career came in 1885 when, with Viggo Johansen and Krøyer, he went to Paris. On the way they visited Amsterdam, where the art of Rembrandt made a great impact on Paulsen. In Paris he showed interest in Courbet and Monet, and, together with Johansen and Krøyer, he exhibited at the Salon. From 1886 his time was shared between landscape, figure and portrait painting. His first landscape, From the Village of Ry (1886; Copenhagen, Hirschsprungske Samling), is an early example of his personal blend of Romanticism and Symbolism; it shows a golden sunset colouring the houses and gardens of the small village. His View from the Harbour after Sunset (1891; Copenhagen, Hirschsprungske Samling) has much in common with Monet, the Copenhagen skyline barely discernible through a deep blue and iridescent atmosphere. A later visit to Paris inspired such sunlit townscapes as Under the Pont des Arts, Paris, the shimmering, sketchy surface of which is dominated by fresh blues and greens; the painting incorporates a favourite Impressionist motif, the curved filigree of the iron bridge, which both frames the scene and lends it tension.

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