Bruce Museum presents exhibition ‘The Art of Work: Painting Labor in Nineteenth-Century Denmark’

The Bruce Museum extends special exhibition ‘The Art of Work: Painting Labor in Nineteenth-Century Denmark’ celebrating the 150th anniversary of Impressionism

Rarely displayed paintings from the private collection of Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr.

now on view through November 30 2025

In recognition of the 150th anniversary of Impressionism and the important contributions of Denmark’s Skagen art colony to the groundbreaking movement the Bruce is presenting “The Art of Work: Painting Labor in Nineteenth-Century Denmark.” Due to popular demand the exhibition has been extended through November 30 2025. Organized thematically to illuminate the virtue and beauty of labor—be it domestic intellectual or manual—the exhibition features a selection of 28 rarely exhibited paintings drawn from the collection of Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr. 

Months after the April 1874 exhibition by French Impressionists that famously deviated from the official Paris Salon the Danish painter Karl Madsen (1855–1938) persuaded his friend from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Michael Ancher (1849–1927) to join him in Skagen to paint life in the remote fishing village. As with the exhibition in Paris Ancher’s arrival there marked the beginning of an artistic revolution that would upend the academic realism and traditional styles subjects and locales that defined Danish Golden Age art.

Inspired by growing discourses around nationalism and naturalism during this period Danish artists turned to scenes of everyday life and especially of labor. Indeed as Skagen developed into a thriving art colony in the late 19th century labor had become a defining feature of Danish painting paving the way for other artists—including Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864–1916) and L.A. Ring (1854–1933)—to contemplate the art of work and the work of art. 

Women depicted engaging in child-rearing and ordinary household tasks — such as laundering setting the table or mending clothes — reflect the quiet intimacy of domestic work. Agricultural and maritime labor which predominated in the coastal towns where many Danish artists lived and worked also appear frequently in these paintings which serve as testaments to the strength endurance and respectability of local farmers fishermen and their families. Others capture the mental exertion required for piano-playing reading writing and painting positioning artistic creativity as its own valued form of labor. While the portraits landscapes and interiors on view highlight the dynamism of work as a subject in 19th-century Danish art they also stand as potent reminders of the artistic labor inherent to their making.

“The Art of Work: Painting Labor in Nineteenth-Century Denmark” is on view through November 30 2025. The exhibition is organized by the Bruce Museum and curated by Margarita Karasoulas curator of art and Jordan Hillman curatorial associate. Support for “The Art of Work: Painting Labor in Nineteenth-Century Denmark” is generously provided by Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development Connecticut Humanities and the Charles M. and Deborah G. Royce Exhibition Fund. 

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