Georg Vilhelm Arnold Groth by Peter Most

Georg Vilhelm Arnold Groth (9 March 1842,

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

- 14 September 1899, Copenhagen) was a Danish landscape painter.

Biography

His father was a pharmacist and his mother came from a family of merchants. After taking a diploma at the Det von Westenske Institut, a private gymnasium, he began his artistic instruction at the drawing school operated by

Frederik Ferdinand Helsted Frederik Ferdinand Helsted (March 18, 1809 – December 11, 1875) was a Danish painter and drawing master. Biography Helsted was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was the son of Johan Helsted and Ane Marie Salathee. From 1834 to 1837 he studie ...

. In 1861, he took some classes at the

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts ( da, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - Billedkunst Skolerne) has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark. History The Royal Dan ...

, then attended the Modelskolen, but his studies were interrupted when he was

conscripted Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...

to serve in the

Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. ...

. He graduated from the Academy in 1866 and held his first exhibition that same year. From 1872 to 1878, he made several study trips to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

; notably a trip to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

from 1875 to 1876. Later in 1876, when the highly-respected painter, Vilhelm Kyhn, rejected the desirability of seeking inspiration from the French, Groth strongly disagreed. He wrote ''Dansk Kunst i Forhold til Udlandets'' (1876), providing a new approach to historical awareness of past influences. Inspired by the work of

Georg Brandes Georg Morris Cohen Brandes (4 February 1842 – 19 February 1927) was a Danish critic and scholar who greatly influenced Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind ...

, he argued that every period imposes its own requirements and that

Realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

was the appropriate goal for contemporary Danish artists. This led him to associate with the "" (roughly, the "Literalists") a group of radical intellectuals who between 1880-1882 met to discuss art and literature .

Karl Gjellerup Karl Adolph Gjellerup (2 June 1857 – 11 October 1919) was a Danish poet and novelist who together with his compatriot Henrik Pontoppidan won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1917. He is associated with the Modern Breakthrough period of Scandi ...

and

Pietro Krohn Pietro Købke Krohn (23 January 1840 – 15 October 1905) was a Danish painter, illustrator, theatre director and museum director. He is remembered above all for his work together with Otto Haslund, illustrating Johan Krohn's book ''Peters Jul' ...

were among its most notable members. His best works are generally believed to be those he did along the shores of Lillebælt and

Hellebæk Hellebæk is a town located on the coast five kilometres northwest of Helsingør, North Zealand, some 40 kilometres north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It has merged with the neighbouring community of Ålsgårde to form an urban area with a population o ...

. In 1874, his painting ''Hede med en Mose'' (Heath with a Bog) was acquired for the Royal Collection.

Selected Paintings

File:Vilhelm Groth - To småpiger i skoven en efterårsdag.jpg, Two Young Girls in the Autumn Woods. File:Vilhelm Groth - Hede med en mose - KMS1070 - Statens Museum for Kunst.jpg, Heath with a Bog File:Vilhelm Groth - Sommerdag på en skovvej.jpg, Summer Day on a Forest Road File:Vilhelm Groth - Stille dag ved den norlige del af Esrum Sø.jpg, Quiet Day on the Northern Part of

Lake Esrum A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

References

External links

ArtNet: More works by Groth.
from the Dansk Biografisk Lexikon @

Project Runeberg Project Runeberg ( sv, Projekt Runeberg) is a digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries. Patterned after Project Gutenberg, it was founded ...

.
Vilhelm Groth
@ Gravsted {{DEFAULTSORT:Groth, Vilhelm 1842 births 1899 deaths 19th-century Danish painters Danish male painters Danish landscape painters Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni Artists from Copenhagen 19th-century Danish male artists