This charming early 20th-century oil painting by Danish artist Valdemar Magaard (1864-1937) depicts ‘an old captain’ reading a newspaper by the light of a window. Magaard was an accomplished painter of tender genre scenes.

With his head held back, as many of us long-sighted folks do, he studies the latest news. It feels like a daily ritual - grandad’s reading time. The wall behind yields clues as to his life - a painting of a ship, a portrait of a gentleman, and a clock to indicate the passing of time.

Magaard began his artistic education at the preparatory technical school before moving on to the eminent Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He also undertook further lessons with Peder Severin Krøyer and Johan Nordhagen (1856-1956) in Oslo. Clearly, he was an artist keen to develop his technique. 

In between his studies, he visited the Netherlands and Germany, however, it was to his homeland that his artistic sensibilities were drawn. It was here that he established himself as an artist of note via his richly sentimental and heartfelt interiors. With a healthy dose of nostalgia, they look back to a simpler time of folk traditions while also banishing any hint of increasing industrialisation.

Signed in the lower left and held in a gilt frame, which is probably original.

Learn more about Valdemar Magaard in our directory.

Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 16½” x 15” / 42cm x 38cm
Year of creation: 1925
Labels & Inscriptions: Inscribed with the artist and title on the reverse.
Provenance: Private collection, Denmark.
Condition: Cleaned. Frame with various marks and showing its age.
Artist’s auction maximum: £1,400 for ‘A Mother and Child’, Oil on Canvas, Christie’s, London, 1994.
Our reference: BRV1994