The Mail Coach

The Mail Coach

In this painting, the mail coach is driving along Skagen Sønderstrand on its way from Frederikshavn to Skagen. Until 1890, travellers from Frederikshavn to Skagen had to use the mail coach, private horse-drawn carriages, or disembark from the shore. It was only in 1890 that the railroad was extended to Denmark’s northernmost town. Most of the artists visiting Skagen in the 1870s and 80s, travelled with the mail coach. The journey of around 40 km took almost a full day, with a stop in Aalbæk, between Frederikshavn and Skagen. Carl Locher came to Skagen for the first time in 1872 by mail coach and painted and etched many pictures of the small, horse-drawn carriage driving along the seashore. It is the landscape, and not least the journey through the landscape, that is the main focus of Locher’s picture, and he has depicted the nature that the artists became encountered on the journey to Skagen.

1851 - 1915