Rhododendron in Tuxen’s garden
According to Laurits Tuxen’s memoirs, it was the Danish-born Queen, Alexandra of England who advised him to plant rhododendrons in his garden at Villa Dagminne. The rhododendron bush became the motif for several of his paintings. He ordered the rhododendron from a Danish gardener in the Belgian town of Ghent and according to Tuxen, nobody had ever attempted to grow the plant in Skagen before. The picture shows his wife, Frederikke pruning the bush. The violet and white colours of her clothing are repeated in the white flowers surrounding her. She almost disappears in the blossoms and in terms of colour, she is an integrated part of the flowering bushes. In his notebooks of 1917, Tuxen notes that he began painting the picture on 5th June and completed it 13 days later.
