JOHANSEN, Viggo - b. 1851 København, d. 1935 København

Danish painter. He trained at the Kongelige Akademi for de Skønne Kunster from 1868 to 1875 under Jørgen Roed (1808-1888). In 1871 he began to visit the fishing hamlet of Hornbaek on the north coast of Zealand, not far from Copenhagen, often with painters such as Peter Severin Krøyer and Kristian Zahrtmann (1843-1917). Here Johansen painted pure landscapes, or alternatively figures from the village’s traditional population, seen in their homes. A Meal (1877; Copenhagen, Hirschsprungske Samling) shows an elderly fisherman seated at table eating potatoes, attended by his wife; dull daylight from a window in which a net is drying illumines the frugal interior and worn figures.

Johansen belongs to the group of Skagen artists. He first became associated with the Skagen Painters in 1875, encouraged by his fellow students Karl Madsen and Michael Ancher. In 1880, he married Anna Ancher’s cousin Martha Moller, who often served as a model.

From 1885, he exhibited in Paris; there he was inspired by Claude Monet, particularly in his use of colour as can be seen in his painting Christian Bindslev is Ill, 1890), which also shows the influence of Christian Krohg, one of the other Skagen painters.

After his return from Paris, his paintings took on lighter tones; he had noted the absence of black in the works of the French artists and considered his own earlier works too dark by comparison. Nevertheless, Johansen is remembered particularly for the subdued lighting effects of his interiors and his scenes of domestic family life, but he also painted landscapes.

From 1888 to 1906, he taught at the Artists Academy’s School for Women. He then became a professor there until 1920 and, for a time, was one of its directors. He won many notable awards during his lifetime, including medals at exhibitions in Munich in 1889 and in Berlin in 1891, and a Gold Medal at the Exposition Universelle in 1899.

Near Skagen Østerby after a Storm

Around 1870, growing numbers of Scandinavian (Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish) artists took to visiting Paris, the modern metropolis with its many-sided art scene. They attended the school of L�on Bonnat, or the Acad�mie Julian, or the Acad�mie Colarossi. Some of them were tutored by Jean-L�on G�r�me. When summer arrived and tuition ceased at the private schools in Paris, the artists deserted the city. The coast of Brittany was especially popular for painting holidays. In the 1880s, there was a Swedish artists’ colony at Gr�z-sur-Loing, by the Fontainebleau woods.

In due course the artists took the idea of the artists’ colony back to Scandinavia with them. The most famous of the northern colonies was at Skagen in Denmark. Many Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish artists returned there every summer, to paint in the fine northern light in the company of friends old and new.

Johansen painted with Monet’s influence still fresh. Sheep are grazing in the foreground, while on the horizon, which divides the picture in two, we see Skagen with its mill, lighthouse, and the yellow-painted houses with their red tiled roofs.