In recognition of the 150th anniversary of Impressionism and the important contributions of Denmark’s Skagen art colony to the groundbreaking movement, the Bruce is presenting “The Art of Work: Painting Labor in Nineteenth-Century Denmark.” Due to popular demand, the exhibition has been extended through November 30, 2025. Organized thematically to illuminate the virtue and beauty of labor—be it domestic, intellectual or manual—the exhibition features a selection of 28 rarely exhibited paintings drawn from the collection of Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr.
Months after the April 1874 exhibition by French Impressionists that famously deviated from the official Paris Salon, the Danish painter Karl Madsen (1855–1938) persuaded his friend from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Michael Ancher (1849–1927), to join him in Skagen to paint life in the remote fishing village. As with the exhibition in Paris, Ancher’s arrival there marked the beginning of an artistic revolution that would upend the academic realism and traditional styles, subjects and locales that defined Danish Golden Age art.
More information: brucemuseum.org
