SKAGEN PAINTERS 30 Artfor, and painted the scene. It
shows the couple sitting in a
lamplit room, absorbed in as-
sessing a painting. You can al-
most hear the companionable
silence. Anna had advantages
as an artist - a supportive part-
ner, a studio, a maid to help
with household work - but she
was also was a blazing talent.
Many of her later works prove her to be the most modern
of the Skagen artists. Her interest in sunlight and colour,
and in the patterns created by both, was leading her to-
wards abstraction in her work.
A double portrait of Marie and Krøyer also exists.
They each painted the other. He painted a stunning,
solemn woman, while she painted a man who looks ill.
Marie had discovered her husband’s syphilis. It must havebeen a shock - the disease was contagious, and in the
days before antibiotics the prognosis was not good. His
mental health was deteriorating; he often suffered from
delusions of grandeur. At one point he thought he had
been crowned king of Norway. In 1900, Krøyer had a
complete breakdown and was admitted to a mental hos-
pital. Around this time, Marie stopped painting. Her
husband was diagnosed with ‘dementia paralytica’ - a con-
dition linked to syphilis. He suffered incredibly and was
hospitalised many times. He was often discovered in the
middle of the night, furiously sketching another patient.
In 1902, after twelve years with Krøyer, Marie fell in
love with someone else. Her affair with the composer
Hugo Alfvén inspired his stunning rhapsody Midsom-
marvaka. Marie asked Krøyer for a divorce, he refused.
She stayed on with him
in Skagen but was very
depressed. Krøyer then in-
vited Alfvén to live with
them, which he did. As a
result, Marie found herself
labelled a femme fatale,
and snubbed by everyone
in the scandalised colony -
everyone except for Anna.
When Marie became
pregnant by Alfvén,
Krøyer finally agreed to a divorce, and let her go. She left
him and moved to Sweden with Alfvén. When Krøyer
died four years later, due to complications from syphilis,
Marie returned to Skagen for his funeral, despite being
warned to stay away.
Unhappily for her, Marie’s second love of her life, the
talented Swedish composer, turned out to be a rampant
adulterer. She and Alfvén eventually divorced. MarieSKAGEN PAINTERS 30 Art
for, and painted the scene. It
shows the couple sitting in a
lamplit room, absorbed in as-
sessing a painting. You can al-
most hear the companionable
silence. Anna had advantages
as an artist - a supportive part-
ner, a studio, a maid to help
with household work - but she
was also was a blazing talent.
Many of her later works prove her to be the most modern
of the Skagen artists. Her interest in sunlight and colour,
and in the patterns created by both, was leading her to-
wards abstraction in her work.
A double portrait of Marie and Krøyer also exists.
They each painted the other. He painted a stunning,
solemn woman, while she painted a man who looks ill.
Marie had discovered her husband’s syphilis. It must have
been a shock - the disease was contagious, and in the
days before antibiotics the prognosis was not good. His
mental health was deteriorating; he often suffered from
delusions of grandeur. At one point he thought he had
been crowned king of Norway. In 1900, Krøyer had a
complete breakdown and was admitted to a mental hos-
pital. Around this time, Marie stopped painting. Her
husband was diagnosed with ‘dementia paralytica’ - a con-
dition linked to syphilis. He suffered incredibly and was
hospitalised many times. He was often discovered in the
middle of the night, furiously sketching another patient.
In 1902, after twelve years with Krøyer, Marie fell in
love with someone else. Her affair with the composer
Hugo Alfvén inspired his stunning rhapsody Midsom-
marvaka. Marie asked Krøyer for a divorce, he refused.
She stayed on with him
in Skagen but was very
depressed. Krøyer then in-
vited Alfvén to live with
them, which he did. As a
result, Marie found herself
labelled a femme fatale,
and snubbed by everyone
in the scandalised colony -
everyone except for Anna.
When Marie became
pregnant by Alfvén,
Krøyer finally agreed to a divorce, and let her go. She left
him and moved to Sweden with Alfvén. When Krøyer
died four years later, due to complications from syphilis,
Marie returned to Skagen for his funeral, despite being
warned to stay away.
Unhappily for her, Marie’s second love of her life, the
talented Swedish composer, turned out to be a rampant
adulterer. She and Alfvén eventually divorced. Marie