Copenhagen, Denmark
Emil Carlsen had studied architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts for four years before his relocation to the United States in 1872
118-128 N Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19102, United States
Emil Carlsen took part the Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1883
800 Chestnut St, San Francisco, CA 94133, United States
Emil Carlsen chaired the San Francisco Art Institute from 1887 to 1889
1083 5th Ave, New York, NY 10128, United States
Emil Carlsen taught at the National Academy of Design from 1905 to 1909
Copenhagen, Denmark
Emil Carlsen had studied architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts for four years before his relocation to the United States in 1872
118-128 N Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19102, United States
Emil Carlsen took part the Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1883
800 Chestnut St, San Francisco, CA 94133, United States
Emil Carlsen chaired the San Francisco Art Institute from 1887 to 1889
1083 5th Ave, New York, NY 10128, United States
Emil Carlsen taught at the National Academy of Design from 1905 to 1909
Viggo Johansen, the artist's cousin
Dines Carlsen, the artist's only son
Childe Hassam, one of the artist's friends
Emil Carlsen, born as Soren Emil Carlsen, came to the world on October 19, 1853, in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was a son of I. A. S. Carlsen and Dorothea Raa.
Raised in Copenhagen, Emil got acquainted with art through his family. His mother was taught painting by I.L. Jensen and his cousin, Viggo Johansen, belonged to the group of the Skagen painters. Johansen chaired the Danish Royal Academy.
Emil Carlsen began his artistic education at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where he had studied architecture for four years before his relocation to the United States in 1872. He also was an apprentice of the Danish marine painter Laurits Bernhard Holst.
Largely autodidact artist, Carlsen traveled to Paris to explore the art of great masters. It was this time when he became fascinated by the art of Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. Later, Emil Carlsen discovered the paintings by Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir.
Emil Carlsen started his career at the early 1870s working at the architecture office in New York City where he earned $10 a week. He tried to establish his own school for mechanical drawing with a partner but the idea wasn’t realized.
Then, Carlsen got acquainted with a Danish artist Laurits Bernhard Holst who gave him some painting lessons and left his studio in the city coming back to Denmark.
Having some financial difficulties, Emil was ready to give up painting when he came in contact with the sculptor Leonard Wells Volk. Volk provided Carlsen with a post of a teacher of drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago. Carlsen was also allowed to paint at the studio near his work place. After meeting Lawrence Carmichael Earle who advised Carlsen to pursue his artistic training in Europe, the artist travelled to Paris where he stayed for about six months.
He came back to New York City at the beginning of 1876 with almost no money. He established the studio where he worked on still lifes similar in style on Chardin’s art he had discovered in Paris. The canvases had bad sales, and soon, helped by money from his parents, Emil Carlsen moved to Boston searching for more opportunities. It was in the city where the young artist exhibited his paintings for the first time. In 1877, his marine paintings, titled ‘Out on the Kattegat’ and ‘The Seaweed Cart’ were demonstrated at the exhibition organized by the Boston Art Club.
After some period of good sales, Emil Carlsen went back to financial struggles. To support himself, he organized an art auction trying to earn money from his paintings. Only few works were purchased and he struggled again. The artist was obliged to leave his painting studio and started to work as an assistant to an engraver. After paying all his debts, Carlsen gave up engraving an established the small atelier where he taught painting.
This time, the artist participated at several exhibitions including the second show at the Boston Art Club in 1881 where he presented ‘The Seaweed Gathers’to the public. In a couple of years, for the first time, he demonstrated his still-life painting, ‘Peonies’, at the annual Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. It was the beginning of the late acclaim.
In 1884, he participated for the third time at the Boston Art Club exhibition where a couple of his canvases were named the best. Both art critics and art admirers put their attention to Carlsen’s canvases. Among such art admirers were an art collector Thomas B. Clarke and an art dealer Theron J. Blakeslee. The latter hired Emil to paint floral still lifes in Paris where the artist came in 1884.
Emil Carlsen had remained in the capital of France for two years. He received more commissions on floral still lifes but soon tired of the genre and made the paintings with enthusiasm not similar to which he had at the beginning. While in the city, the artist developed the interest in depicting Chinese porcelain that later became his trademark. In 1885, he participated at the Paris Salon with his canvas titled ‘Woman Preparing Poultry’. It was purchased by an American art collector at a good price. The sale encouraged Carlsen to break the contract with Blakeslee and to continue his artistic journey in New York City.
On his comeback to the Big Apple, the artist started up the studio once again. This time, his work obtained quick popularity and he had sufficient income. In 1887, Emil Carlsen accepted the invitation to chair the San Francisco Art Association School (currently San Francisco Art Institute). The artist spent a couple of years at the institution and shifted to the Art Students League of San Francisco where he had given private art lessons until 1891. Apart teaching, Carlsen strengthened his financial state doing portraits and working as an interior designer. In particular, he decorated the house for a banker William H. Crocker.
In 1891, Emil Carlsen came back again to New York City where he devoted himself both to painting and teaching. He gave lectures on art at the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and at Columbia University. A year later, he participated in the exhibition of the Society of American Artists. Experimenting with pastel and watercolor, the artist realized that oil paint was the most suitable media for him. At the next show by the Society in 1896, Carlsen exhibited the portrait of his future wife. In addition to portraits, he started to depict ceramics, porcelain, garlic and clothes on his canvases and began to take interest in marines and landscapes.
At the beginning of the new decade, the painter developed his landscape skills sketching in Connecticut. From 1905 to 1909, Carlsen had held the life painting course at the National Academy of Design. He had annual exhibitions there and participated in other public presentations as well, such as the Venice Bienale of 1909, the Buenos Aires Expositon of 1910, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 and the Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition of 1926 in Philadelphia.
The paintings by the artist were sold at high prices at auctions and the art dealers around the country were pleased to represent Carlsen’s art. He joined the Macbeth Gallery in New York City which organized his solo shows in 1912, 1919, 1921 and 1923. Emil Carlsen’s popularity attended its peak.
Although widely recognized in America, he remained almost unknown in his native Denmark that time.
Emil Carlsen, the Danish painter who became popular in the United States making his contribution to its art, is regarded nowadays as one of the most prominent artists of his time.
In addition to his artistic talent, he was a gifted tutor who devoted the significant part of his life to teach and encourage the young generation of many artists, including M. Evelyn McCormick, Guy Rose, William Keith and Carl Schmitt among others. Carlsen’s art have influenced and continue to inspire a great number of modern painters, such as Clyde Aspevig and Dan W. Pinkham.
During his lifetime, Emil Carlsen received many prestigious awards, such as Temple Gold Medal, Carnegie Prize, Inness Gold Medal, Webb Prize, Walter Lippincott Prize, John Sanford Saltus Award and others. Various exhibitions where the artist demonstrated his pieces of art provided him with medal and honors, including Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition, Panama-Pacific International Exposition and Saint Louis Exposition.
Nowadays, the artist’s heritage is represented in many public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, all in New York City, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Corcoran Gallery Fine Arts in Washington, D. C., the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Albright–Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo and elsewhere.
Summer Mist
Still Life with Brass Urn
Still Life with Teapot
Study in Grey
Brass Kettle with Porcelain Coffee Pot
The Sky and the Ocean
Connecticut Hillside
Windmill
Golden Afternoon
Study of Clouds
Still Life with Self-portrait
Marsh Landscape
Cape Cod
The French Fan
Bald Head Cliff, York, Maine
Spring Landscape
Moonlit Seascape
October Summer
Mallard and Teal
Still Life with Roses and Mandolin
Arranging Flowers
Red Roses
Spring Landscape
Venice
Open Sea
Landscape
Moonlight
Peonies
Weir’s Place at Windham
Portrait of Dines
Crashing Waves
The Picture from Thibet
Wood Interior
The South Strand
Still Life with a Brass Kettle
Ruby Reflection
Still Life with Grapes and Pewter Flagon
Haddock
Quotations: "Beauty is ever present like the light of the sun – even in the most humble object, only it takes as artist’s vision to detect it, and an artist’s skill to reproduce it."
Emil Carlsen was a nice and very sociable person. He never had difficulties contacting with people, that’s why he made easy many friends and acquaintances in the art world which he met in multiple art associations.
Carlsen was often called by his friends ‘Old Carlsen’ for his generosity and kindness.
Quotes from others about the person
“I know that Carlsen’s only philosophic intention is to paint beautiful, pleasurable pictures. And yet is always seems to me that he is trying to find s formal symbolical expression for the thought that nature exerts an influence curiously hypnotic.” Duncan Phillips, art collector
“[Carlsen] is not so much the painter of trees and skies and the dimly lighted interiors of woods and forests, nor of waves and cliffs and clouds as he is of the moods these natural objects inspire in his soul.” John Steele
“When great waves dash upon rounded rocks it is the decorative, vaporous mass of white flying water thetr fascinates the eye… With Carlsen it is the serenity of nature that is interpreted rather than its more dramatic manifestation.” Eliot Clark, artist
“Carlsen’s marines are done with a true love… One artist relates how he met Carlsen at Ogunquit, and as they walked in the moonlight they stopped very often and looked out over the deep, dark sea… and stood spellbound until Carlsen dashed his hat to the beach and cried, ‘My God, isn’t it wonderful!” F. Newlin Price, author
"Emil Carlsen is unquestionably the most accomplished master of still-life painting in America today. ... It is evident that Carlsen has lifted his art to a height it has never reached before." Arthur Edwin Bye, art writer
Emil Carlsen married Luela Mary Ruby in 1896. The marriage produced one child, a son Dines Carlsen.
Emil and Luela Mary taught their son at home both scholastic subjects and painting. Later, Dines followed his father’s steps and became a painter. He was a member of the National Academy of Design.
