Education
After a short period at the Danish Academy (spring 1884), he attended the Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler (1885–1891) where he was the first of the Fynboerne to study under Kristian Zahrtmann.
After a short period at the Danish Academy (spring 1884), he attended the Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler (1885–1891) where he was the first of the Fynboerne to study under Kristian Zahrtmann.
Syberg, from a poor background in Fåborg, first served a house painter"s apprenticeship under Syrak Hansen, the father of fellow artist Peter Hansen before attending the Copenhagen Technical School in 1882 where Holger Grønvold taught him drawing. His travels included Sweden (1899) where he visited Johannes Larsen, Germany (1902), Italy (1905) together with Jens Birkholm, the Netherlands and Paris (1908) and Pisa (1910–1913). He was the father of artist Ernst Syberg and composer Franz Syberg.
Together with Johannes Larsen, Poul South. Christiansen and Peter Hansen, Syberg was one of the first Funen artists to study under Zahrtmann who had broken away from the traditions of the Danish Academy to venture into Naturalism and Realism.
Initially he was influenced by Zahrtmann"s colourist approach which can be seen in depicting his mother"s death in Fåborg"s poorhouse 14 years earlier. Quite early in his career, Syberg began to paint watercolours but it was during his three-year stay in Pisa with his family that he completed a whole series of watercolours adopting a style that was new to Danish art