Anna Ancher (18 August 1859 – 15 April 1935) was a Danish artist associated with the Skagen Painters, an artists' colony on the northern point of Jutland, Denmark.
Anna Ancher was considered to be one of the great Danish pictorial artists by virtue of her abilities as a character painter and colorist. Her art found its expression in Nordic art's modern breakthrough towards a more truthful depiction of reality, e.g. in Blue Ane (1882) and The Girl in the Kitchen (1883–1886).
Ancher preferred to paint interiors and simple themes from the everyday lives of the Skagen people, especially fishermen, women and children. She was intensely preoccupied with exploring light and color, as in Interior with Clematis (1913).
She also created more complex compositions such as A Funeral (1891). Anna Ancher's works often represented Danish art abroad. She was awarded the Ingenio et Arti medal in 1913 and the Tagea Brandt Rejselegat in 1924.
Anna and Michael Ancher were featured on the front side of the DKK1000 bill, which came into circulation on 25 November 2004 and was subsequently replaced. The front of the banknote had a double portrait of Anna and Michael Ancher, derived from two 1884 paintings by Peder Severin Krøyer, which originally hung on the walls in the dining room at Brøndums Hotel.
Anna Ancher select paintings:
