Peder Mørk Mønsted

Peder Mørk Mønsted painted the Danish countryside with a realism so precise it can look almost photographic: sunlit streams, still ponds, beech woods, snowy lanes and farmhouses. He was especially good at water and snow, and at the clear, cool northern light that falls on them.

Born near Grenå in Jutland, he studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, took lessons from P.S. Krøyer and worked briefly in Paris in the studio of William-Adolphe Bouguereau. He travelled widely, to Algeria, Greece, Egypt, Spain and Switzerland, but always returned to Danish landscape. He was particularly popular in Germany, where he exhibited at the Glaspalast in Munich. Most of his paintings remain in private collections.

In A Forest Stream and A Boat Moored on a Quiet Lake, look at the reflections and the careful detail of leaves, stones and ripples.