This early 20th-century oil painting by Danish artist Alfred Broge (1870-1955) depicts a gently-lit coastal view with boats. It’s a beautiful work with the setting sun, low in the sky, reflected in silvery waters.

Broge is predominantly known for his exquisite interior scenes, which often carry a sense of aloofness, akin to those by Vilhelm Hammershoi. Women, with backs turned, leave through partially-lit doorways, or sit at pianos by windows masked by voiles. In these, the figures are always skillfully rendered, as if caught in perpetuity. He was an accomplished figure painter, having trained at the Royal Danish Academy.

So it’s interesting then, that when he approached a landscape or coastal view, he chose to omit them entirely. Preferring, instead, to focus on nature and the occasional building or boat. Was nature an escape for him, a silent foray with an easel and canvas?

Here, in this piece from around 1930, he worked en plein air, capturing the fleeting effects of light before it disappeared entirely. There’s sand from the beach embedded in the paint. It’s solitude, silence by the sea - a single sailboat rests under an overcast sky - the breeze feels fresh and endless.

Signed in the lower right and held within a gilt frame.

Learn more about Alfred Broge in our directory.

Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 27½” x 22½” / 70 cm x 57cm
Year of creation: c. 1930
Provenance: Private collection, Denmark.
Condition: Assessed and approved by our conservator. Cleaned. Frame with light marks and signs of age.
Artist’s auction maximum: £11,000 for ‘A Young Fishergirl (1919)’, Oil on canvas, Sotheby’s, 19th and 20th Century Scandinavian Paintings, Watercolours and Sculpture, London, 1990 (lot 170).
Our reference: BRV1823