RING, Laurits Andersen

(b. 1854 Ring, d. 1933 Sankt Jørgensbjerg)

Danish painter. The son of a poor smallholder, he first trained as a house painter. He studied at the Kongelige Akademi for de Skønne Kunster, Copenhagen, under Frederik Vermehren (1823-1910) from 1874 to 1877, and then under Johan Julius Exner (1825-1910) from 1884 to 1885. In 1885 he also trained at the Kunstnernes Studieskoler under Peter Severin Krøyer.

Ring’s landscapes and genre pictures frequently deal with social themes. In 1889 he traveled via Hamburg to Paris where he was impressed by Millet and Raffaëlli. The clear composition of his pictures reveals his interest in Japanese art.

At the French Windows. The Artist's Wife

The painter was married in 1896, the year before he painted this portrait of his wife, Sigrid Kähler (1874-1923). At that time he was 42, while she was 22. Thus, it seems natural to interpret this image as a declaration of love for the artist’s pregnant wife, with the promise of spring acting as a symbol of the consummation of love.

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Girl Looking out of a Skylight

In this painting the subject and the presentation of the passing moment are rendered in a very confined space, one that permits of no narrative extras. The girl’s half-averted face and the view of the city rooftops are both linked and kept separate by the play of depth and space created by the slant opening and by the angles and crossbars of the skylight.

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Whitewashing the Old House

The old woman Ane has opened her window and looks into the strong sunlight to exchange a few words with Per Nilen. Brandishing his brush and bucket of whitewash he is preparing her house for spring, his eyes squinting against the glare from the white wall.

Having renovated the old school in Baldersbronde near Hedehusene, the painter moved there with his family in 1902. The old woman Ane lived just across the street and helped around the house at Ring’s; she and Per Nilen appear in many of his paintings.

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