This early 20th-century oil painting by Danish artist, Harry Kluge (1879-1963), depicts the Niels Juel amid fog. Kluge was an accomplished painter of marine scenes, architecture and landscapes.
The Niels Juel was a training ship constructed at the Royal Danish Naval Shipyard in Copenhagen between 1914 and 1923, which also served as a royal yacht. It was an impressive vessel with an overall length of 90m and up to 369 crew.
In 1923, she visited Dartmouth, Cadiz, Madeira and the Cape Verde Islands, while en route to South America, but encountered a violent storm on the return voyage, which caused damage to her rudder chains. As such, she was manoeuvred via her propellers until emergency steering could be rigged. Following repairs at Plymouth, she docked into Copenhagen in February 1924, which is possibly when Kluge produced this atmosphere piece. It’s dated that year.
Kluge often worked at Copenhagen harbour, sketching numerous ships in varying weather conditions. He was particularly fond of fog - capturing the blur of lights in muted tones. As you can imagine, his works were particularly popular with retired naval officers. He also produced numerous studies of ‘bits’ of architecture, such as stone archways, partially illuminated doors, and views of urban backstreets. In each of these, his emphasis was on textural effects and accurately representing contrasting surfaces. He tended to use warm yellows, browns, and greys in his colouring, which led critics to refer to his oeuvre as ‘nostalgic’.
Alongside his works in oil, he was employed as an underglaze painter in the workshop at Bing & Grøndahl, the porcelain manufacturer. Here, he met fellow marine painter, Christian Benjamin Olsen (1873-1935) who was probably an inspiration.
Signed/dated in the lower right and held in a later frame.
Learn more about Harry Kluge in our directory.
Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 28½” x 38½” / 72cm x 98cm
Year of creation: 1924
Provenance: Private collection, Denmark.
Condition: Cleaned. Revarnished. Frame in excellent condition.
Artist’s auction maximum: £6,156 for ‘Den kejserliga yachten, The Polar Star, i Köpenhamns hamn (1912)’, Oil on canvas, Stockholm, Sweden, 2015.
Our reference: BRV1913
