American Art Collaborative

Emil Carlsen studied architecture in Copenhagen and moved to Chicago when he was nineteen. In the 1870s he lived in Boston, creating background scenes for paintings of animals. He could not support himself, however, and had to put his work up for auction to pay his bills. Not many of his paintings sold, so Carlsen worked as an engraver to pay his debt. He described himself as "dog-poor," but in 1883 his luck changed when one of his paintings was accepted for an exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. A New York dealer saw the show and offered to support Carlsen's studies in Paris in return for the artist's still-life paintings. After two years, Carlsen grew tired of painting "endless yellow roses" and returned to New York, where he created landscapes inspired by his New England surroundings. (Sill, "Emil Carlsen, Lyrical Impressionist," Art and Antiques, March/April 1980