Christian MØLSTED
Dragør 1862 - Dragør 1930
Biography
The son of a fisherman, the Danish artist Christian Mølsted was a marine and genre painter. In 1880, following a stint on a Danish frigate, he entered the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, where he spent four years, although he also took the opportunity to travel to Paris to study developments in contemporary art in France. Mølsted first exhibited his work in 1884, and five years later won a prize for a painting of Ships in the Harbour at Larsens Plads, Copenhagen. He soon established a reputation for historically accurate depictions of naval battles from Danish history; the most famous of his works in this vein was a painting of The Frigate Niels Juel at the Battle of Heligoland, painted in 1898 and recording a naval engagement that had taken place in 1864. Mølsted also earned several official state commissions for paintings of scenes from Danish naval history. The artist’s studio in his home town of Dragør is now a museum devoted to his work.
