Station: [7] Michael Ancher: „The Drowned Fisherman“ (1895)

On a plain wooden table only a few metres from us lies the motionless body of a man. Seawater still trickles from his hair. So the depicted scene takes place immediately following an accident at sea. The dead man is wearing the work clothes of a fisherman. People throng around him, their faces exuding solemn calm and profound sorrow. The facial expression of the woman wearing a headscarf is particularly poignant, as it is filled with love and sorrow. The dropped arms and bitter faces of the men additionally bespeak exhaustion and dejectedness: they only had been able to wrest the lifeless body of their friend from the surging waters.

Michael Ancher was one of the leading protagonists of the Skagen artists’ colony. Over a fifty-year period, he documented the life and everyday reality of the local fishermen.  He was particularly fascinated with the dramatic rescue operations at sea, which he recorded in a series of six paintings. The final work in this series is a monumental canvas entitled “The Drowned Fisherman”. The oil sketch of the same title displayed here is a preparatory work for the painting now kept at the Museum in Skagen. What prompted the work was the death of Lars Kruse who drowned while fishing. Kruse was the foreman of the Skagen rescue boat and hailed as a Danish national hero even during his lifetime. Ancher admired the lifesaver and portrayed him. His images of the drowned fisherman are an honourable monument to Kruse and, at the same time, a reminder of the unpredictability of the sea.