Carl Ludwig Thilson Locher
Danish, 1851-1915
“Evening Sail”
Oil on canvas; 18 ½ x 23 ½ inches
Signed lower right
Carl Locher was born in 1851 in Flensburg in the Duchy of Schleswig, which was then part of Denmark but now German. From an early age he took an interest in ships and received his first training from his father who painted ship portraits for a living. After the father passed away, Carl continued his business for a short while and went on several voyages with ships of the Royal Danish Navy. Struck by the grandeur of the Atlantic Ocean, a voyage to the Danish West Indies made a particular impression on him. Even before he began his studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen in 1872, he was encouraged by the Danish poet and painter Holger Drachmann (1846-1908) to spend a couple of months in Skagen, the Danish artist colony in the far north of Jutland. He quickly completed paintings of the beach, some with fishing boats or wrecks. He also became interested in the horse-drawn carriages which traveled along the beach on their journey from Frederikshavn.
As a member of the Skagen School of painters, Locher was inspired by the light of the evening, which made the water and sky seem to optically merge.