Courage, Freedom and the Colour Purple - Zahrtmann and His Students

From July 10th 2024

The struggle for freedom is a guiding principle of Kristian Zahrtmann’s life. 

He fights for his students’ freedom to be and express who they are at a time when art classes at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts are mostly concerned with drawing correctly.

Zahrtmann teaches art at De Frie Studieskoler for 23 years, from 1885 to 1908. Students at Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler paint live nude models instead of plaster casts of classical sculptures.

Zahrtmann gladly poses as a model for his students and soon becomes so popular that he is given his own department at the school, which becomes commonly known as ‘Zahrtmann’s School’.

Students and colleagues describe him as affectionate, effervescent and sensitive. He trains 194 students. The painters of Denmark’s Funen and Bornholm artists’ colonies are his most renowned students.

Zahrtmann trains his students to develop unique, personal styles. As he says in 1907:

“... Students are at liberty to feel unique – like an unsolved problem – and they are stimulated and assisted on their way towards the solution, just as the sun urges a plant to grow. This is why the students never resemble their teacher, but are their own person.”

In this exhibition you will meet Kristian Zahrtmann, Bornholm artists’ colony, Edvard Weie, Karl Isakson, Olaf Rude og Jais Nielsen as well as Fritz Syberg and Peter Hansen.