MELBYE, Anton

Danish painter. He was the oldest of the three Melbye brothers (the others were Vilhelm and Fritz) and a well known marine artist. He had originally wanted to be a sailor, but abandoned this ambition because of bad eyesight. Similarly, he later gave up training as a shipbuilder, deciding instead to become a marine painter.

In 1838 he entered the Akademiet for de skonne Kunster in Copenhagen. He received private tuition from Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, and was one of several of his pupils who devoted themselves to marine painting. He exhibited for the first time in 1840, provoking an immediate response from the public. His early pictures followed the style of Eckersberg’s marine paintings, which are characterized by a heightened calm and clear colour, but Melbye soon moved towards a more international, Romantic style.

Anton Melbye travelled extensively in the Northern Sea and Baltic Sea, to Morocco, Stockholm, Italy and to Constantinople. He exhibited from 1840 on at the Charlottenborg in Copenhagen, from 1847 on in the Salon of Paris, 1862 in London and in Hamburg, in Berlin at the Academy and in Brussels. There appeared already fakes of his paintings or works by other artists which signed also with the initials “A.M.”.