Painting Light – Anna Ancher at Dulwich Picture Gallery

The curators at Dulwich Picture Gallery have done it again!  They've pulled together yet another fabulous collection of artworks by yet another artist who often goes under the radar here in the UK.

This time we have Anna Ancher (pronounced Anker), a talented lady based in the small town of Skagen in Skane, which rhymes with Jane and window pane, and it's the latter which features in many of Anna's painted works as she was very adept at painting light coming into interior spaces, mostly within her family home, Brøndums Hotel, which formed the hub of the town at the very northern pointy tip of Denmark.

This reminds me of art classes at school, approx age 15, when we were tasked to paint an interior with light coming in from a window ahead. Weirdly, we were expected to do this from our imagination, not from life. I will dig out my old portfolio later this week and I might add pics of my efforts.

Many of Anna Ancher's evocative paintings feature her friends and family busy at work or just sitting and reading. I relate to the quote about about staying close to home, something I tend to do more these days as I haven't been anywhere that involves a plane journey for almost eight years. Recollections of places visited in far off countries fade over time and become almost dreamlike memories. There is so much to see and do nearer home. However, my home town of London is vast and varied and there is always something new to experience, as Samuel Johnson observed in that 'tired' quote.

Note that I have cropped into most of the paintings to select specific details.

Anna was well-known in Denmark, yet I had never heard of her before being alerted to this show, and I doubt many others will be aware of her either unless they have Danish friends or connections to that country. I'm often saying that there are many talented artists all around the world whom we never get to hear about, in countries as random as Venezuela and Vietnam, yet all we are mostly fed on Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and The Mona Lisa!

The Skagen landscape features in many of Anna's works, again with the emphasis on natural light at different times of the day, the narrow flat peninsula providing both sunrise and sunset opportunities.

If you visit, be sure to watch the short movie in the central area and look out for the little doors placed here and there, cleverly designed to intrigue and inspire children (and me):

If you saw my RA Summer Show entry earlier this year you will already know that I am interested in the gallery walls as well as what's on them, so I've here grouped these little doors with other things that caught my eye – a painted grille, two big studded doors and the end of seating over a trap door.

Anna Ancher: Painting Light – until 8th March 2026