Georg N. Achen (Danish 1860-1912)
Quiet Contemplation, Interior from Buderupholm, 1907
oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right "G. Achen 1907"
Exhibited: Charlottenborg, 1908, no. 5
Size: 34 ¾ x 29 ½ (with frame 43 x 37 ½ in)
J20110
Artist Biography
This stunning work by Georg Achen was exhibited at the Danish Royal Academy in 1908. The scene depicts an interior from Buderupholm, an old manor from the Middle Ages located in North Jutland about 25 kilometers south of Aalborg. Georg Achen's education is quite similar to that of his contemporary artist friend Vilhelm Hammershøi. Like Hammershøi, Georg Achen began as a student of the drawing teacher Niels Christian Kierkegaard. He continued with Vilhelm Kyhn and was later admitted to the Danish Royal Danish Academy in 1877. In 1883, at the same time as Hammershøi, Achen moved to the Kunstnernes Studieskole where he studied under the influential Danish artist Peder Severin Krøyer.
At this exhibition there were five works by the artist with motifs from Buderupholm. Buderupholm is an old manor from the Middle Ages located in North Jutland about 25 kilometers south of Aalborg. Georg Achen's education is quite similar to that of his contemporary artist friend Vilhelm Hammershøi. Like Hammershøi, Georg Achen began as a student of the drawing teacher Niels Christian Kierkegaard. He continued with Vilhelm Kyhn and was later admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1877. In 1883, at the same time as Hammershøi, Achen went to the Artists' Free Study Schools under Peder Severin Krøyer.
In this painting, Hammershøi's artistic and motific influence on Achen can also be seen with this interior where a young woman is standing by a window as the light flows in. Hammershøi's classic grey Copenhagen interior has been replaced with Buderupholm's characteristic historicistic interior.
Georg Achen's daughter Johanne Buhl (1889–1977) donated her and her late husband’s, barrister Paul Buhl, living rooms to the Randers Municipality. The couple wanted the living rooms to be kept for posterity and experienced as if the residents had just stepped out for a short errand. Included in the gift was Georg Achen's art collection, which included many of Achen's own works. The Buhl’s living rooms and Achen's many works can therefore still be experienced at Museum Østjylland in Randers.
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