At the French Windows. The Artist's Wife
L.A. Ring (Danish, 1854–1933)
1897
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- height 191 cm, width 144 cm, height 198.5 cm, width 153.2 cm
- Culture
- Danish
- Museum
- SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark: SMK waives its rights in this photograph, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
About this work
A gnarled branch in the centre of the picture catches the eye as a discordant feature. It is spring, and everything else is effervescent with growth and fertility. From the woman in the doorway to the blossoming apple trees in the garden. Laurits Andersen Ring was 41 when he got engaged to Sigrid Kähler in 1895. She was 21, and the two were married the following summer. Being with Sigrid opened up new worlds for Ring. His melancholic periods became fewer and farther between. In the painting’s celebration of life and love, it is as if the painter is consciously trying to curb his sense of happiness. He limits the view of the garden, and he lets a dark knot and a stunted branch introduce a memento mori – a reminder of the brevity of life. The picture exemplifies Ring’s distinctive visual sensibility. It is realistic, and we believe in the view we are shown. At the same time, the picture incorporates several areas of particularly condensed significance. The artist makes stylisations, deliberate omissions and additions (such as a notably eye-catching branch), thereby suggesting the possibility of a more symbolic interpretation (50 Favorites in the SMK Collection).
