At the Old House

L. A. Ring prints bring the quiet roads, village ponds, harvest fields and sunlit rooms of rural Denmark into your home. Laurits Andersen Ring was one of the foremost Danish painters around 1900, a pioneer of both Symbolism and social realism, whose work is part of the Danish Culture Canon. Our collection of fine art prints covers his landscapes, village and farm scenes, interiors and portraits of his wife.

About L. A. Ring

Laurits Andersen was born on 15 August 1854 in the village of Ring in southern Zealand, the son of a wheelwright and carpenter. Apprenticed as a house painter in 1869, he began taking painting classes in Copenhagen in 1873 and entered the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1875, studying briefly with P. S. Krøyer, though he disliked the Academy's strict training.

In 1881 he and his friend Hans Andersen took the names of their home villages to avoid confusion at a joint exhibition: he became L. A. Ring and his friend H. A. Brendekilde. Recognition came with The Lineman (1884). In the politically tense 1880s he was active in a radical movement, and his pictures increasingly showed the hard lives of rural workers.

After a year in Italy in 1893, he began painting the young artist Sigrid Kähler, daughter of the ceramicist Herman Kähler, and married her in 1896. They lived at Karrebæksminde and had three children; Sigrid died in 1923. In his last decade he lived in a house he built at Sankt Jørgensbjerg in Roskilde, overlooking the fjord, where he died on 10 September 1933.

Style and Subjects

Ring painted the Danish countryside with quiet, careful realism: straight country roads, level crossings, village ponds, frost and thaw, workers in the fields. His light is clear and cool, his compositions calm and often almost empty.

Beneath the realism there is often a Symbolist mood of waiting, ageing and the passing of time, as in his pictures of railway crossings or of his wife at an open window. Scholars now see the realist and Symbolist sides of his work as inseparable.

Famous Works

• The Lineman (1884), Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. A railway guard by the tracks, the picture that made his name.
• Harvest (1885), Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. A reaper at work in a sunlit field.
• Springtime in Hals, Jutland (1892), Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. A spring village scene.
• At the French Windows. The Artist's Wife (1897), Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. Sigrid standing at an open window, his best-known image.
• At Breakfast (1898), Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. A quiet domestic morning.
• Summer Day by Roskilde Fjord (1900), Randers Museum of Art. A wide, calm view included in the Danish Culture Canon.
• Churchyard at Fløng (1904), Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. A quiet village churchyard.
• Waiting for the Train. Level Crossing by Roskilde Highway (1914). A figure waiting at a lonely crossing.

Decorating with Ring Prints

Ring's calm country roads and fields, like A Winding Path, suit Scandinavian, minimal and farmhouse interiors, bringing quiet light to a living room, bedroom or hallway.

His interiors and portraits of Sigrid, such as At the French Windows, are lovely in a reading corner or study, and his winter scenes make good seasonal art.

FAQ

Who was L. A. Ring?

L. A. Ring (1854–1933) was a leading Danish painter around 1900, known for quiet rural landscapes and interiors and a pioneer of Symbolism and social realism in Denmark.

Why did he change his name to Ring?

Born Laurits Andersen, he took the name of his home village in 1881 to avoid confusion with his friend Hans Andersen, who became H. A. Brendekilde, at a joint exhibition.

What is L. A. Ring's most famous painting?

At the French Windows. The Artist's Wife (1897) and Summer Day by Roskilde Fjord (1900), part of the Danish Culture Canon, are among his best-known works.

Where can I see Ring's paintings?

The Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, the Hirschsprung Collection and the Randers Museum of Art hold his work.

Related Artists

• Peder Severin Krøyer: his teacher at the Academy
• Vilhelm Hammershøi: Danish painter of quiet interiors of the same era
• Michael Ancher: Danish painter who portrayed him in 1892
• Theodor Philipsen: Danish painter of the countryside