Laurits Andersen Ring

Lock at Pompeii

Laurits Andersen Ring (1854 –1933) was one of the foremost Danish painters of the turn of the 20th century, who pioneered both symbolism and social realism in Denmark.

Lock at Pompeii, detail

In Ring's art the road and the path are recurring themes, and other lines such as creeks, rivers and estuaries, the open sea and modern elements e.g. bridges, railway tracks and telephone cables are used as main motifs. The roads lead the eye into the paintings and out again, as a symbol of the human existence.

Herman Kähler in his Workshop 

Ring painted landscapes, but in the beginning of his career it was not the landscape painting that dominated his art. Up until 1887 there were about 10 landscape paintings out of approximately 90 works of art in his repertoire. From 1888 and until his death in 1933 the landscape painting however made up about three quarters of his production.

A Turner at his Lathe