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Vilhelm Melbye

1824-1882 Denmark/Romanticism-Marine art

 

Brief Biography-Vilhelm Melbye was born in Helsingør, Denmark, in 1824. His brother, Anton, a marine artist, tutored him in seascapes. He entered the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1884 for three years. He sailed to Iceland with the Navy in 1847 and traversed the north coast of Denmark, where he got most of his inspiration. From 1851 he visited numerous European countries and exhibited in Paris. Melbye worked out of London until 1867, visiting other countries intermittently, and he married and settled in Roskilde on the Roskilde Fjord near Copenhagen in 1854. He exhibited in Vienna and Paris and regularly visited Norway and Sweden, where he sold many works. In 1880 Melbye became a professor at the Royal Danish Academy after being awarded the Order of Dannebrog in 1976. His younger brother Fritz was also a marine painter who travelled the Americas and Asia.

 

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In Dangerous Waters
off Bamburgh Castle

In Dangerous Waters off Bamburgh Castle-Northumberland

Shipping
off Gibraltar

Shipping off Gibraltar

A Royal
Navy Warship

A Royal Navy Warship Running into Gibraltar at Dusk

A Three-masted
Barque Reefed-

A Three-masted Barque Reefed-down in Heavy Weather

Kynance Cove-
Cornwall

Kynance Cove-Cornwall

Roadstead at
Alicante

Roadstead at Alicante

A Paddlesteamer
in a Heavy Swell

A Paddlesteamer in a Heavy Swell

Stormy Afternoon
in Skagerak

Stormy Afternoon in Skagerak

Tall Ship in
Choppy Sea

Tall Ship in Choppy Sea

Waves Crashing on
a Rocky Coastline

Waves Crashing on a Rocky Coastline

Xebecs and Other
Shipping off Gibralter

Xebecs and Other Shipping off Gibralter at Sunset