Anna Ancher - by Helen Hillyard & Mette Harbo Lehmann (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Anna Ancher (1859 - 1935) - one of the most innovative artists in Danish art history - explores her life, career and artistic influences. Accompanies the first major exhibition in the UK dedicated to the artist at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London from 4 November 2025 - 8 March 2026.

This catalogue accompanies the first major exhibition in the UK dedicated to Anna Ancher (1859 - 1935), considered to be one the most innovative artists in Danish art history.

Bringing together recently discovered paintings from Anna Ancher's home, alongside an extensive body of work made throughout the artist's long career, the exhibition will feature more than 40 of her paintings, including the artist's most famous masterpieces on special loan from Art Museums of Skagen. A central figure of the Skagen artist colony, based at the northernmost point of Jutland, Ancher is widely considered to be the most significant female painter in Danish art history. She is widely celebrated in her homeland yet remains relatively unknown to foreign audiences.

Ancher was an influential figure of the Scandinavian 'Modern Breakthrough' movement that sought to capture real life, demonstrated in her intimate, observational works, which documented everyday experiences in the fishing town of Skagen. Influenced by her travels to Paris, as well as French Impressionism, the artist produced vivid interiors and evocative landscape scenes in which light becomes the central figure. The exhibition will demonstrate Ancher's bold approach to color and radical interpretation of everyday scenes as a truly pioneering modern painter.

About the Author

Helen Hillyard is Head of Collection at Dulwich Picture Gallery. She has previously worked in the curatorial departments at the National Gallery, London, and Birmingham Museums, and studied at the University of Cambridge and the Courtauld Institute of Art. Mette Harbo Lehmann is a curator at Skagen Art Museums, with a particular focus on Danish art of the late 19th century and early 20th century. She has curated multiple exhibitions on the Skagen artists and in 2020-21 was co-curator of L'heure bleue de Peder Severin Krøyer at Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris. She studied at Aarhus University, Denmark, where she currently holds a post-doctoral research post.