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Danish landscape painter Peter Mørch Christian Zacho (more commonly known as Christian Zacho) was born on March 31st, 1843 in Grenå on the western shore of Jutland. The son of a farmer, Christian Zacho showed no desire to fallow in his father’s footsteps but rather took to drawing. He was sent to Aarhus to study painting and drawing with the animal painter E.L. Høegh-Guldberg who encouraged Zacho’s further studies and gave him a recommendation to work with Professor Christian Frederik Hetsch, the architect, designer, and painter. Zacho moved to Copenhagen to continue his studies in drawing with Professor Hetsch and when he was 19 years of age, he began training at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts which he attended for five years. Following this he studied under the Danish romantic landscape artists P.C.Skovgaard (1817-1875), in whose house he lived for four years, and Vilhelm Kyhn (1819-1903). Zacho first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1865 with his painting En Septemberdag (A September Day), which he painted in Jutland. Many of his early works showcased Jutland while later landscapes focussed on scenes of Zealand, Møn and Bornholm.
In 1871 Zacho received the Sødringske Prize. The following year he visited Italy with fellow artists Anton Thiele, Otto Haslund and Christian Blanche. As a side trip, Zacho visited the Vienna World Exposition of 1873, and became interested in the works of French landscape painters, especially those from the Barbizon school. This interest in French painting led him, alongside fellow Danish artists Godfred Christensen and William Groth, to spend a year in Paris with the celebrated French artist Léon Bonnat. Paintings completed while he was in France show his strong technical abilities and sense of colour, clear and harmonious, inspired by traditional French landscape painters such as Théodore Rousseau.
By the 1880’s Christian Zacho’s career was well established and his 1881 painting Den Første Sne (The First Snow) was purchased for the National Gallery of Denmark. In 1884 he was honored with the Thorvaldsen Medal for Et stille Vand i Dyrehaven (Quiet Waters in the Dyrhaven, 1884). He received many travel bursaries including in 1891 when he again traveled to France with the Ancher Scholarship. 1891 also saw him receive honorable mention at the Anniversary Exhibition in Vienna. In 1897 he was named a Professor.
In his later career Zacho began to paint portraits, though he is best remembered for his depictions of idyllic scenes of Danish beech trees. Christian Zacho died on March 19th, 1913 in Hellerup.