Skagens Museum

Lonely Planet review

Artists discovered Skagen's luminous light and its colourful, wind-blasted heath-and-dune landscape in the mid-19th century, and fixed eagerly on the romantic imagery of the area's fishing life that had earned the people of Skagen a hard living for centuries. Painters such as PS Krøyer and Anna and Michael Ancher followed the contemporary fashion of painting en plein air (out of doors), often regardless of the weather.

Their work established a vivid figurative style of painting that became known internationally as the 'Skagen School'. The wonderful Skagens Museum showcases the outstanding art that was produced here between 1830 and 1930, much of it kitchen-sink portraits of the lives and deaths of those in the fishing community. PS Krøyer's work is quite incredible, particularly his efforts to 'paint the light'. He was particularly transfixed by the 'blue hour', the transition between day and night, when the sky and the sea seem to merge into each other in the same shade of blue-Overall, the paintings here evoke an atmospheric sense of place and demonstrate a real community of artists in Skagen who worked and played together. Aksel Jørgensen's painting of the funeral procession for Holger Drachmann, a writer who made his home in Skagen, shows the procession passing the dunes at Skagen's northern beach and is quite touching. Krøyer's painting of a Midsummer's Eve bonfire on Skagen's beach shows notable Skagen residents including Anna Ancher and Holger Drachmann. The museum also houses the former dining room of Brøndums Hotel, one-time hang-out of many of the Skagen artists, moved in its entirety in 1946 from the hotel across the road.