ANTON HANSEN

(Danish, 1891–1960)

THE WHITE CAMEL, CAIRO

Oil on Plywood

23¼ x 28½ Inches

Stamped with Certification of Authenticity verso

 Provenance:

Air Force Captain A.P. Botved, a personal friend of the artist, and thereafter by descent in the family.

Exhibited:

Presumably as, 'The White Camel, 1935', painting #31 in the catalog for Hansen's 1951 solo exhibition at Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art.

 

A detailed, preliminary drawing for this work, dated 1926, is illustrated (p. 257) in Hanne Abildgaard's book "Anton Hansen: Mellemkrigstidens sorte satiriker" (Anton Hansen: Black Satirists Between the Wars, 2001), a copy of which accompanies this painting. Hanne Abildgaard, the leading specialist on the life and work of Anton Hansen, notes that the artist drew this scene while traveling with the writer Johannes Jensen in 1926. The drawing was reproduced in the 'Social Democrat' that year and is now in the permanent collection of Copenhagen's ArbejderMuseum. Hansen also describes the drawing in his unpublished manuscript, 'Old Man and Sphinx', now in the collection of The Royal Danish Library.

 

Anton Hansen first studied painting as an apprentice (1905) before attending the Copenhagen Technical School. He subsequently worked as a painter of theater sets with Gerhard Blom (1909) and Thorolf Pedersen (Royal Theater, 1910) and, later, with Aksel Jørgensen. Hansen also contributed a number of satirical cartoons to Danish newspapers (1909-1924). In 1910 and 1912, Hansen exhibited as a member of De Tretten (The Group of Thirteen) with Aksel Jørgensen and Robert Petersen. During the later teens and early 1920's, and parallel to his satirical work, Hansen painted poetic, modernist landscapes and urban scenes and also worked as a book illustrator, including for the Danish edition of Grimms' Fairy Tales. After the war, Hansen traveled and painted widely including in Egypt and Palestine (1926); Berlin (1928); London (1933), and later to the South Atlantic (1948-49, 1954-55), Rome and Paris (1952).

 

We are pleased to offer an important, documented work from the artist's middle period.

 

Reference:

Weilbach, Dansk Kunstnerleksikon, the Castle and Cultural Agency, Copenhagen; Vollmer Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler des 20. Jarhhunderts, Hans Vollmer, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 1992, Vol. 2, page 370; Dansk Illustrationskunst: fra Valdemar Andersen til Ib Andersen, Walter Schwartz, Carit Andersens Forlag: Kobenhavn 1949, page 242; et al.