Drachmanns Hus | Exterior

Drachmanns Hus | Exterior

Drachmanns Hus

Drachmanns Hus – Home to the poet and painter Holger Drachmann

Drachmanns Hus still looks very much like it did when the Skagen painter and author Holger Drachmann lived there from 1902-1908. On the walls, there are about 150 drawings and paintings, mostly by Drachmann, but other artists of the era are also represented. Drachmann bought the house and named it Pax when he was planning to marry his third wife, Soffi Drachmann, (née Lasson). At the time, the house was situated on a large plot of land among scattered dwellings. The oldest part of the building was built in 1828, and Drachmann renovated it and added a studio in 1902. With the help of others, including Peder Severin Krøyer, the couple furnished the house, and in 1903, the year they got married, Drachmann transferred the deeds of the house to Soffi.

In the last quarter of the 19th century, Drachmann was the most famous and infamous writer in Denmark. He was a tall man, who liked to dress in his brown cloak and collection of exotic hats. He achieved a great deal of recognition in Europe and North America and was enormously productive. He had six children with three different women, of which he married only two. He also had several relationships with other women.

Drachmann was trained as a marine painter. Born in Copenhagen in 1846, he was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1869, where he debuted at the Spring Exhibition of 1869. Around the same time, he took up writing and it was a writer, that he should achive fame. Despite his success as a writer, he continued to pursue art throughout his life.

Drachmann visited Skagen for the first time in 1872, returning frequently before settling in the town in 1902. He died in Hornbæk on 14 January 1908 and was interred twelve days later in the dunes at Grenen, where his tomb can still be seen today.

Drachmanns Hus is a member of the Artist’s Studio Museum Network, artiststudiomuseum.org, a network of single-artist museums, house museums and studio museums across Europe.