Painting of The Month – Interior. Brøndum’s Annex by Anna Ancher

This month’s featured painting is Interior. Brøndum’s Annex by Anna Ancher. I stumbled across this painting by chance on page 2 of a Google search. It caught my eye, despite it being such a simple composition.

Anna Ancher, Brøndums Annex, 1891
Anna Ancher, Brøndums Annex, 1891

Click here for a high resolution photo of the painting.

Brief Details About the Painting:

  • Wood on oil.
  • 44.4 x 37.9 cm (17.4 x 14.9 inches).
  • Completed c.1920.
  • Location: Skagens Museum, Denmark.

Your Thoughts?

Use this as an opportunity to test your ability to analyze master paintings. In the comments below, share what you think are the top 3 most important aspects of the painting. These could relate to areas such as composition, color, value, progress, brushwork, subject, or symbolism. Once you have done that, you can compare your thoughts with my own in the drop-down below.

Click here to see my thoughts.

  • The first thing that strikes me about the painting is the strong, harmonious color theme. You can feel the warmth of the light.
  • There’s a pleasant contrast between thick, luscious lights and thin shadows. And if you look closely, you can see some subtle color variance in the lights.

Tip: You can create a powerful statement by contrasting multiple elements against each other. In this case, there’s a contrast in both value (light against dark) and texture (thick against thin).

  • It’s a high key painting, meaning most of the colors are around the middle to light end of the value scale. There are a few dark accents representing door knobs. These play an important role in commanding our attention around the middle and in being a point of contrast for the surrounding light colors.
  • The composition is simple, but strong. It’s essentially a play between light, shadow, and space. This is a perfect example of how you can transform a simple, everyday scene into a beautiful painting. Always be on the lookout for painting inspiration!

23 thoughts on “Painting of The Month – Interior. Brøndum’s Annex by Anna Ancher”

  1. Light, contrast, and depth. The first thing I notice is the bright light through the windows. Next, the simplicity of the colors used and their contrast, finally looking into the next room adds intrigue and depth. What’s in there? What’s in the door in the right?

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  2. It’s an unusual composition making the focal point in the centre, namely, the annexe. I like the contrast between the locked door and the one opened seeming to tell a story. I also like the simple limited palette and light in the painting along with the subject. Less is more here.

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  3. The light harmonizes with the warm colors of the door trim in the room but is contrasted with the cool color of the walls. The geometric shapes of the room frame the composition and move the eye around the painting. The hardness of the structure is softened with the blurred edges of the light. Then, there is mystery invoked by the placement of the light shapes that imply other windows unseen in the room. My mind tries to determine where the windows are that the light streams through. Clearly, there is a window in the main room, but the direction of the light in the hallway tells me that the light in the main room cannot be attributed to the windows one can see. And then here is the curtain in the back hall/room that clearly shares some of the light and shapes of the window frames with the sharp edge of the curtain mirrored on the back wall. It’s the only soft thing in the painting. Could this be the focal point? All along I thought it was the light.

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  4. I love the feeling of air and light and vacant space. So well conveyed in the warm & cool colors. I would say the most important aspects are composition, color and subject. I am a fan of a wonderful artist of interior scenes, Carole Rabe. I recommend checking out her work, too.

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  5. High key value scale and colour pallette limited mostly to two complementary colors bring out simplicity and lightness to the scene. Geometric shapes of the doors and doorway contradict that and bring structure to the composition. Light impressions on the wall in the far away room form the focal point but that brings more questions than answers. Where is the source of light? Where are the windows through which the sunlight is litting the room? It is an interesting way to keep the viewer’s eyes (and mind) in the painting.

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  6. It looks like an unfinished practice piece on perspective and warmth. The colours are warm with a contrast of blue to balance. It is very empty, just like an empty echoing house. It gives me a sense of loneliness and abandonment. I don’t know if this was her intention. The light gives some hopefulness. It is not a painting I would want in my house.

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  7. Thank you Dan, Happy New year to You and Your lovely family! I love your lessons and exercises, new challenges. In the letter was a wonderful quote. My brush is same 🙂
    My thoughts about the interior scene from Anna Ancher.
    The first impression: the light I like! The light from window what I don’t see, I don’t see what is behind it. But I see the light and glares on the walls, it is fantastic, I admire the glares on the anothe wall in the next room in the foreground, the light throught the little windows of the door. It is gorgeous. Only then I was able see the floor and all geometry of the perspective, the warm (a bit orange) light of glares and cool (blue) of shadows. The value of the colour is still difficult for me. So I don’t write about it.

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  8. This is a naive painting executed by the artist that is in direct contradiction to her real skills. I have noted a possible second version of the same painting but in much darker tones that suggests an evening setting which perhaps indicates experimentation with the light effects at different times of the day.
    There are technical faults with some of the perspective elements in particular the light patches on the wall on the right.
    On the basis that the light source is from the implied window on the left in the far room, a line from the sill level extended up through the top glazed door panel suggests the top light patch would be much higher and the light patches should be trapezoidal in shape.
    Additionally, the LHS wall of the far room is at a different angle to the RHS wall in the near room suggesting a peculiarly shaped building.
    The main appeal is the simplistic detailing and use of the tonal variations of the same colour to provide interest in the presentation of the various elements.
    From what I can see I would assess this to be a quick sketch (line marks on the walls could be pencil marks) that has been then painted to record the tonal variations and the play with light for future reference in one of her studio works.
    Examples of similar types of image by her are- “Maid in the kitchen”, “Sunshine in blue”, “Mother and baby” and “Interior with clematis” that particularly demonstrate her skills and contrast widely with this naive version of her work.
    My comments are perhaps a bit too critical on what is clearly a rough sketch that she probably made to record the light patterns that caught her eye. This is a particular feature of many of her studio works with light slanting in at various angles with varying intensity and at times slightly veiled by thin curtains etc.

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  9. What strikes me first is the simplicity of the subject – just a door or entry to annex. nothing else that distracts. Second thing that attracts my attention is light and shadow on the wall indicating a sunny day outside. The third thing I like is little hint of greens in annex that breaks the monotony of single color. This is an amazing painting! Thanks for posting this.

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  10. I love the warm and cool colors, and how she has painted the light reflections on the walls. It looks like the artist decided to open the door so that she could see and paint the natural light that hits the walls in a beautiful and interesting way. There are no objects in the annex, and the other door is closed, so what is left to explore is the interplay of different colors and natural light.

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  11. I love pictures of interiors because no matter how empty they are, they still tell a story. I am impressed by the iridescent colours of the light that suffuses the room. It doesn’t matter whether its source is correct or not – it is the feeling that it evokes that matters.

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  12. Wow, such light and warmth, the open door working to draw you in, wonder where it leads. Fantastic use of unexpected colours and simple and effective perspective.
    Also I absolutely loved Bato Dugarzhapov’s interiors. Thank you for introducing us to bother these artists

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  13. Love this painting. The simplicity of composition, the focus on the light, the colour scheme, which at first seems simple when with the subtleties of blue, pink, purple, green, really keep you in the picture, along with the pathway through the door which creates depth and intrigue. She clearly was a master of her craft…

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  14. I liked the open and closed door. The open door let light in the front room as well as letting us see the light in the far room. Where as the closed door appeared to be not only closed but locked. It let no light in or out. It seemed to symbolize the differences between open and close-minded people.

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  15. Loved, loved the brightness. But the roughness of the picture suggested to me that perhaps it was a practice piece. I don’t know this artist so I am curious about her. It is a picture of “questions”

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  16. The first thing that strikes me about this painting is that whoever did this is a very confident decision maker. It captures a split second when she realises the brilliant light being cast through the glass door onto the wall. Her ability to capture this wabi sabi-like moment is admirable and`I envy her skill in being able to focus the viewer’s attention on it whilst inviting the viewer into to the mysterious, cooler depth of the space beyond. I suspect the brush work may not be deliberately loose, it’s just that the transitory nature of the scene requiring the artist to work fast, but if it was, it adds to the impression that the moment will not last. A painter who can see, feel and capture and convey this moment and use a high key palette in this way certainly knows what they are doing, in my view.

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  17. I think the focal point is the cool green of the curtain in the far room. Everything seems to lead to it, the floor boards, open door, light reflections on walls. It’s a soft spot in a painting with lines and hard edges. With all of the lively warmth, the pop of green seems cool and soft like I can almost feel a breeze coming in. The shadow of the curtain shows movement.

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  18. This is a very simplistic high key painting that has nice muted contrasting colors. I like the orange shade against the bluish purple, very pleasing. The painting has depth and the artist did a nice job with perspective which is very important for this painting.

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  19. The color of the floor and door seems spot on and the geometric sun reflections have a realistic feel. This painting is so bare bones and yet it seems to leave room for the mind to ponder and reflect on the spareness and wonder what is in the other room and why did the artist paint what seems a mundane subject, but totally gets my attention. The warmth of the colors almost translates to actual warmth. I like the mental pause that this composition affords.

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  20. Below is a comment made by Bella Bird:

    Love this painting. The simplicity of composition, the focus on the light, the colour scheme, which at first seems simple when with the subtleties of blue, pink, purple, green, really keep you in the picture, along with the pathway through the door which creates depth and intrigue. She clearly was a master of her craft…

    Reply

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