Press release:
Art Museums of Skagen is looking for lost artworks by the artist Marie Triepke Krøyer Alfvéns
For several months art historian and museum curator Mette Bøgh has been searching in old letters, catalogs, and newspapers. She is searching for artworks by Marie Triepcke Krøyer Alfvén (1867-1940). At this time the museum is searching for six specific artworks, but preliminary examinations show that more artworks are probably out there in privately owned collections in Sweden and the rest of Europe.
” We know that a number of artworks by Marie Krøyer do exist because old sources like reviews, old newspaper articles, catalogs, notes from auctions, letters and such have mentioned artworks which have not been seen since. We also know of at least one auction at the beginning of the 1960s where a large part of her artworks where sold”, Mette Bøgh says. She hopes the search will result in both the six known artworks showing up and the discovery of more unknown artworks by Marie Krøyer.
At the beginning of the 2000s a search turned up several hitherto then unknown artworks that were later displayed at museums in Skagen and Copenhagen.
This time the search will spread out internationally in the hope of it producing more of the unknown artworks.
The versatile artist
Marie Triepcke Krøyer Aflvén belonged to an artistic elite around the turn of the century. Her own production of artworks spans different artforms and ranges from paintings to crafts, to design and interior decoration.
“We know that Marie Krøyer did more than paint. She also contributed a lot to the decorations of houses in Skagen, Copenhagen and Tällberg at the turn of the 1800s and at the beginning of the 1900s”, says Mette Bøgh and continues: “That is why we are also interested in information regarding furniture, crafts and textiles that could have been made by Marie Krøyer”.
New stories of a dynamic artist
In 2023 Art Museums of Skagen and The Hirschsprung Collection focus on Marie Krøyer in a large exhibition of her artworks, interior decoration and design.
An exhibition that breaks from the narrative of Marie Triepcke Krøyer as the talented artist who got married with one of Denmark’s most successful and internationally recognized artists Peder Severin Krøyer and then stopped making art herself.
“Marie Krøyer’s work was spawned from a dynamic and fertile artist community around the turn of the century and her design and talent for interior decoration shaped the fashion and several of the opinion makers of the time. With the exhibition and the ongoing research we hope to show new sides of Marie Krøyer and the network she worked within and the things that inspired her. In other words, it is our ambition to tell a new story about late 1800s art and put her artworks in an international context”, finishes Mette Bøgh.
The Art Museums of Skagen has 35 artworks by the artist and a large amount of these will be part of the upcoming exhibition in correlation with a number of unknown artworks which we will hopefully manage to secure and loan.
Contact
Contact museum curator Mette Bøgh Jensen via email: mbj@skagenskunstmuseer.dk
