With Me – The Skagen Painter Viggo Johansen

Viggo Johansen (1851–1935) was an unusual Skagen painter who, in his time, earned the epithet ‘Painter of the Home’. No other male artist depicted scenes from the confines of the home or the bosom of the family as closely and intimately as he did. Johansen’s own private home provided the setting for soirées with the important cultural figures of the day, who formed part of his extensive network. He made his wife, Martha Johansen, and their six children his primary subjects; and his paintings of everyday life reveal the invisible work of the woman in the home: comforting, nurturing educating, washing the children, and kitchen duties. 

When Viggo Johansen turned his gaze away from home and everyday life, he did not look toward the dramatic seascape along the coasts of Skagen, as did his colleague Michael Ancher, nor toward festive scenes in sunlit summer gardens, like P. S. Krøyer. Rather, Johansen directed his attention towards the back streets and the periphery. He painted windswept, deserted landscapes, rain-soaked alleys, moonlight over quiet fields, and perhaps a flock of geese in an otherwise desolate terrain. 

This exhibition presents an important but often lesser-known member of the colony of artists in Skagen. With his beautiful and evocative motifs, Viggo Johansen contributed to the development of modern painting. What is more, he left his mark on several significant female artists of the period, in his capacity as the first instructor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts’ department for women.

This exhibition is made in collaboration with Ribe Kunstmuseum and the Art Museums of Skagen.

The A.P. Møller and Wife Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation For General Purposes, the Augustinus Foundation, the Axel Muusfeldt Foundation, Aage an Johanne-Louis Hansens Foundation, the Knud Højgaard Foundation, Consul George Jorck and Wife Emma Jorck’s Foundation, the New Carlsberg Foundation, and the June 15 Foundation.