Emil Carlsen (1853-1932)
A prominent realist painter who first gained fame for his still lifes, Carlsen trained as an architect in his native Denmark before emigrating to America in 1872. He became particularly drawn to the works of the great 18th century French still-life painter Jean-Siméon Chardin, and returned to Paris in the mid-1880s for further study of Chardin's work. Carlsen's early kitchen still lifes, with their gleaming copper and brass bowls and kettles (frequently including dead game or fish), reveal Chardin's influence and became instrumental in stimulating a revival of interest in this sort of subject matter in America. Carlsen was also renowned for his floral still lifes, which frequently featured luxuriant roses and beautiful ceramics, underscoring his great facility for depicting a wide array of surface textures.
Carlsen focused later in his career on painting seascapes and landscapes (particularly of the scenery around his Falls Village, Connecticut, home and studio), poetic works with broad areas of color that are almost spiritual in character. More impressionistic than his earlier works, these paintings are characterized by softer contrasts and the use of cooler, more atmospheric hues. They also possess a distinctive dry surface texture, which Carlsen created by building up successive thin layers of paint with minimal oil content.
Image: Emil Carlsen, ca. 1910, unidentified photographer. Courtesy of the Archives of American Art. (2017)