artist: Niels Østergaard (Danish 1924-1974)
medium: watercolour on paper
dimensions: 38 x 20 cm image size / 54 1/2 x 37 1/2 cm frame (approx)
signed on the mat, notated and dated 'Pont Carrousel, Paris, Maj 1948'
presented in its original frame
AU $1125 (approx US $725 / 680 EUROS / 112,000 yen / 585 GBP - for exact current conversion visit xe.com)
artist biography
Niels Østergaard was born 18 March, 1924 in Herning in the Jutland region of Denmark. He was a Danish painter and print maker.
Østergaard studied at the Kunstakad in Copenhagen from 1946-1950 under renowned Danish modernist painter Vilhelm Lundstrøm (1893-1950). He took study trips in the late 1940s and early 1950s including ones to France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey.
He won a number of scholarships including Aug. Schiøtt and Vill. H. Michaelsen (both in 1952); Gerda Iversen 1956; Carlsons Pr. 1956 and 1960; Akad. 1957, 1960-61, 1963; and Bendix in 1962.
In 1949 Østergaard settled in Bornholm, the Danish island in the Baltic Sea off the south coast of Sweden. Here he found a landscape and a circle of motifs in the north in accordance with his Jutland mind. In continuation of the dark painting he had been previously exploring, he worked in the first years with heavy and primitive portraits and landscapes, executed in dark earth tones, most often autumn or winter scenes, where individual white snowdrops are allowed to form an effective contrast to the brown fields. In the mid-1960s, he experimented with abstractions over sections of rock and gradually worked his way towards a lighter brushwork and a lighter colour. This lightness also came through in his landscape painting, which was often populated with abstract voluminous figures. In 1971 he executed the large altarpiece Den signede Dag for Thyborøn Church. It was a large decorative work, executed on gold-plated plates and characterized by Østergaard’s collaboration with Paul Høm, whom he had assisted in the decoration of Tarm gymnasium in the early 1960s. In Østergaard’s last works he strove towards pure abstraction.
Østergaard exhibited extensively throughout his career. Group shows he exhibited in include De Unge (Young Artists) Skive Kunstforen. in 1944; Caravellen in 1949; KE 1951, 1953-57, 1959 and 1961; Charl. Forår 1952; Charl. Eft. 1952-53, 1955, 1957-58 and 1960; Herning- malerne, 1952; Da. grafik, Fyns Stiftsmus. 1952; Nord Konst, Gothenburg Museum of Art. 1957; Fluesvampen 1957; Å-udst.1960, 1965 and 1967; Grønningen 1960, and annually 1962-74; Med Dannebrogen i topp, Liljevalchs, Stockholm, 1961. Solo exhibitions include Hotel Eyde, Herning, 1951; Galerie Birch, Copenhagen, 1952; Bornholm Museum, 1952; Den frie Udst. bygn, 1955; Århus Permanente 1958 (with Arne L. Hansen and Helge Holmskov); JJutland Art Gallery, Århus 1963; Den frie Udst. m.fl. 1965; Gal. Lien, Slettestrand 1973; Skive Kunst museum, 1974.
He passed away on 26 December, 1974. A retrospective exhibition was held in 1975 at the Bornholm Kunstmuseum.