Drawing is good for people. Drawing is important. Drawing can enhance mental development, give expression to inner thoughts or to images from everyday life or our imagination. Sometimes, it is easier to draw something than putting it into words. We see drawings everywhere – in newspapers, children’s books, cartoons, urban spaces, etc. With the event programme of the exhibition Drawings Galore, we want to direct focus at the drawings made by the Skagen painters and rekindle a passion for drawing in museum visitors.
Moreover, drawing was a decisive and vital part of the artistic work of the Skagen painters. As a result of this, the collection at Art Museums of Skagen comprise several thousand drawings by the Skagen painters. Several of these have never previously been shown to the public, whereas others will have familiar and highly cherished motifs. A wealth of paper types and techniques are represented. The artists used pastel chalk, they made watercolours, sketched in charcoal and chalk, experimented with pen and Indian ink, and used pencils to practice their sketches.
In the exhibition, we show everything from the artists’ childhood drawings to their spectacular finished works on paper. There are sketches and studies for later versions in oil, e.g. Marie Krøyer standing on the beach during the blue hour with their dog by her side, or Anna and Michael Ancher in Judgement of a Day’s Work. Lines are short and long, fine and strong, thick and thin. There are striking colours and soft nuances. There are sketchbooks showing how inspiration suddenly took hold of the artist and lit a spark.
The exhibition will feature an activity area where visitors can use their hands as well as their eyes. Children and childlike souls will have an opportunity to enter into dialogue with the drawings of the Skagen painters. A series of exhibition themes will take visitors on a creative journey of development, hopefully giving them a taste for and will to try their hand at anything from children’s drawings to speedily completed model drawings or detailed studies – perhaps new works of art will see the light of day.
Drawing fun facts
- The collection at the Art Museums of Skagen contain more than 4000 drawings.
- The collection at the Art Museums of Skagen contain more than 140 sketchbooks filled with drawings made by the Skagen painters.
- More than 600 drawings came to light during the 2018–2022 collection review of the artists’ home Anchers Hus.
- The pencil as we know it was invented by the Frenchman Nicolas J. Conté (1755–1805) in 1795.
- Most people drop drawing when they become teenagers.
- Peder Severin Krøyer was nine years old when he illustrated his father’s zoological thesis.
Draw with pencils, Indian ink, charcoal, and pastel crayons
Welcome to the Drawing Workshop!
