Björk, Oscar

Biografi i relation til Skagen

Efter akademitiden og inden rejserne til bl.a. Frankrig sluttede Björck sig 1882-84 til kunstnerkolonien i Skagen, som dyrkede det nye franske friluftsmaleri og hverdagsrealismen, og her malede han nogle af sine vigtigste billeder som fx Et Nødskud (1883, Statens Museum for Kunst, dep. Skagens Museum).

Biography in relation to Skagen

After his academic studies and before travelling to France and elsewhere, Björck joined the artists' colony in Skagen in 1882-84, which cultivated the new French open-air painting and everyday realism, and here he painted some of his most important pictures, such as An Emergency Shot (1883, Statens Museum for Kunst, dep. Skagens Museum).

Björck fik en hjertelig modtagelse i kunstnerkolonien. Han havde indlogeret sig på Brøndums Gæstgivergård sammen med en kammerat, hvor de indskrev sig som "svenske kunstnere" selv om Akademiet lige var afsluttet. Degn Brøndum indbød dem til en aftenfest med de danske kunstnere, hvilket Björck takkede ja til.

Hans egentlige ambition var dengang store figurbilleder og skønt motiverne går meget tæt på Michael Anchers, gav de ikke anledning til jalousi. Der blev gilde, da han i 1883 solgte "Et nødskud" til Statens Museum for kunst.

Fra 1884 rejste han flere år til udlandet og Krøyer måtte vente på ham til til 1888 for at kunne male ham ind på Hip, Hip, Hurra, mens Björck malede forarbejdet til Krøyers portræt i samme billede.

Den sommer 1888 var han næsten færdig med Fiskere i købmandens bod, dan han pludselig ikke længere kunne styre længslen efter sin forlovede og ved afrejsen forærede maleriet til Michael Ancher. Det ufærdige maleri kan ses i Michael og Anna Anchers Hus (Michaels atelier).

Oscar Björck hører hjemme i dansk kunstliv gennem sit kammeratskab med skagensmalerne.

Han kom første gang til Skagen 14.7.1882, en måned efter P.S. Krøyer, som han knyttede sig nært til, og med hvem han under opholdet 1884 delte atelier i det gamle korntørringsmagasin i hotellets have, som de sammen udsmykkede med fresker. Men også Michael Anchers menneskelige respekt for fiskerbefolkningen og Anna Ancher som person og kolorist vandt hans beundring og hengivenhed, ligesom nordmanden Christian Krohg gjorde det stærkeste indtryk på ham.

Med sit lyse sind og sin livsnærhed faldt han let til i kredsen og var selv elsket af den, og også i høj grad anerkendt. Björck havde allerede malet enkelte friluftsbilleder, før han kom til Skagen, men her fandt han det miljø og de motiver, der helt forløste hans talent, og disse ophold, hvor han lærte de nye strømninger at kende, allerede før han kom til Paris, fik betydning for hans videre kunstneriske udvikling.

I hans produktion indtager malerierne herfra, landskaber, have-, gade- og strandbilleder, en bemærkelsesværdig plads med deres ukunstlede virkelighedsskildring og friske, kraftige farveholdning. Blandt Skagensmalerne hævder han sig ved sit ofte originale syn på motivet.

I sit senere virke var Björck bedst kendt som portrætmaler.

Oscar Björck belongs to the Danish artists’ life through his friendship with the Skagen painters.

His first arrival in Skagen was on 14.07.1882, one month after the arrival of P. S. Krøyer, whom he was close to and with whom he shared studio in the old Grain-Drying House in the garden of the Brøndum’s Hotel during his stay in 1884. They decorated the walls of the Grain-Drying House with frescoes. He admired Michael Ancher’s human respect for the fishing society as well as the personality and colouristic gifts of Anna Ancher. And the Norwegian Christian Krohg impressed him immensely.

After his time at the Royal Academy of Art and before his journeys to a. o. France Björck joined the artists’ colony in Skagen who practiced the new French open air painting and the everyday realism, and here he painted some of his most important paintings as e.g. Et Nødskud [a distress shot] (1883, Statens Museum for Kunst [The Danish Museum of Art], deposited at Skagen’s Museum)

Björck was welcomed heartily by the artists’ colony. He stayed at the Brøndums Inn together with a friend signing up as “Swedish artists” even if they had just left the Academy. Degn Brøndum invited them to an evening party with the Danish artists, and Björck accepted.

At that time his ambition was big paintings with figures and even if the motifs are very close to those of Michael Ancher they did not cause jealousy. He threw a party when in 1883 he sold “Et Nødskud” to the Statens Museum for Kunst. [The Danish Museum of Art].

With his sunny disposition and his vitality he easily fell in with the group of artists and he himself was highly loved by it and extremely accepted. Before his arrival in Skagen, Björck had already made a few open air paintings and here he found the environment and the motifs which completely released his talent and these stays where he got to know the new ideas already before he went to Paris influenced his further artistic development.

From 1884 he was travelling for several years abroad, and Krøyer had to wait for him until 1888 in order to paint him into Hip, Hip, Hurra while Björck painted the preparatory studies of Krøyer’s portrait for the very same painting.

The summer of 1888 he had nearly finished Fiskere I Købmandens Bod [Fishermen in the Grocer’s Store] when suddenly he could not manage the longing for his fiancée and on his departure he presented Michael Ancher with his painting. The unfinished painting can be seen in Michael and Anna Ancher’s House (in Michael’s studio).

In his production the paintings from Skagen, landscapes, garden, street and beach paintings have a remarkable position with their simple depiction of the reality and fresh strong colouring. Among the Skagen painters he often stands out due to his often original view of the motif.

Later Björck was best known as a portrait painter.

English (translation: Grete Hjort)