Christian Vigilius Blache (1838-1920) - Meerküsten Leuchtturm mit Schiff Antike Ölgemälde

Coast of the Sea with a Lighthouse and a Ship

Historical Museum oil painting Maritime Art by the Distinguished Danish Naval Painter Professor Christian Vigilius Blache signed and dated from the year 1885

Christian Blache was appointed Titular Professor of the Art Academy in 1898. He served 1881–1914 as a juror on the exhibition commission for Charlottenborg and was its chairman from 1907–1914. In 1888 he became a member of the Plenary Assembly of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, from 1890 a member of the Academy Council and 1892–1914 its board. Blache was honored in 1888 with the Dannebrog Order (Ridder af Dannebrog) and received in 1904 the decoration as a Dannebrog Man (Dannebrogsmand); in 1914 he was promoted to Commander 2nd Class of the Dannebrog Order. It is no wonder that today he is regarded as one of Denmark’s great naval painters around the turn of the century and his works are represented in many museums and collections.

Christian Vigilius Blache (born February 1, 1838 in Aarhus; died March 14, 1920 in Copenhagen) was a Danish naval painter.
Christian Blache was the son of the rector of the cathedral school in Aarhus, Hans Henrik Blache (1787–1871), and his wife Elise Marie Kold (1811–1874). In 1857 he left the Latin School, where he had become friends with the later landscape painter Janus la Cour. He studied in Aarhus at the Technical University until 1859 and also completed an apprenticeship as a shipbuilder. Until 1861 he worked in this trade, then applied to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen to become a marine painter. He attended the Academy until 1867, interrupted in 1864 by his participation as a Royal Danish Navy sailor in the Second Schleswig War. In addition to his studies he received private instruction from Carl Frederik Sørensen. As early as 1863 he could exhibit a work at the famous "Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition" (Charlottenborg-Forårsudstilling) in Copenhagen, where he subsequently appeared regularly until 1920 with a total of over 200 works.

Thanks to his training he had good knowledge of ships and chose motifs mostly from domestic waters and coasts. He travelled throughout Denmark and provided impressive depictions of, for example, the west coast of Jutland. Some of his paintings depict scenes of rough and stormy weather, in which a strong drama is conveyed. Among his noteworthy works, which are exhibited at the Statens Museum for Kunst and the Danish National Gallery, are Fra Begtrupvigen ved Hels paa Mols (1864) and Panserskibet Ivar Huitfeldt passerer forbjerget Stat … (1893).

The Skagen Painters (Danish: Skagensmalerne) formed the most famous artist colony in the fishing town of Skagen, Denmark, whose heyday was in the 1880s. The artists, mostly from Scandinavia, sought to move away from academic art concepts. They valued plein air painting and oriented themselves toward French realism and naturalism. Blache was one of the first artists to visit Skagen in the far north of Jutland. Because of his influence, Holger Drachmann visited the town for the first time in 1871. One of the better-known paintings of the Skagens Museum is Blache’s Klitlandskab med det grå fyr (1869).

Christian Blache won the Neuhaus Prize (Neuhausenske Præmier) in 1865 for the work Danske Orlogsskibe under Letning i Sundet. Prizes from the Academy in the form of travel stipends followed in 1866 and 1867. In 1869 he again received the Neuhaus Prize for Søgang imod Land. Kronborg[2] and in 1872 a larger travel stipend; in 1887 and 1888 the Eckersberg Medal was awarded to him. These financial resources enabled him to undertake study trips that took him to Holland, Belgium, Paris, Italy, Vienna, Dresden, Berlin (1872), Paris (1878), the Faroe Islands and Iceland (1887).

Oil painting on a wooden panel with oil colors, set in a lavish gilded solid wood frame
Dimensions with frame: 43.5 x 30.5 cm, without frame: 34.5 x 21.5 cm

Signature: lower left, "Chr.Blache 85" in relief
Condition: used, good condition with minor signs of age.
Shipping: DHL insured.