Skejten

Facts

Tidal meadowland nature reserve

By Louise Straarup-Hansen, Mag.art. i kunsthistorie (5 stories)

Skejten is a nature reserve on the east coast of Lolland near Guldborgsund. It covers a stretch of common land and reed marshes near Fuglsang Manor and Fuglsang Art Museum. Ancient broad-canopied oak trees stand out in the open landscape. Huge rocks dot the tidal meadow as if stranded there by the Ice Age. Several Danish artists have captured Skejten's characteristic landscape on canvas. The celebrated modernist Olaf Rude (1886-1957) painted pictures of Skejten's scenery that brought a breath of fresh air to the largest chamber of Parliament at Christiansborg. The New Carlsberg Foundation donated two of his paintings to the Danish Parliament to mark the Parliament's 100th jubilee in 1949. The preliminary paintings now belong to Fuglsang Art Museum.

Partly a public place

Selected entry

Red cows are undemocratic

Story written by Louise Straarup-Hansen

Time / Periode 1949 1954

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The MPs saw only the preliminary paintings for Olaf Rude's paintings in 1949. The watercolours were subtle colours. Some of the MPs were unhappy when the monumental oil paintings stood before them in 1954. The colours were stronger and the motifs were more dynamic and detailed. The artist had also allowed some grazing cows to wander into the picture. The greatest problem was that initially all the cows in Rude's pictures were reddish brown. Jutland MPs thought that was undemocratic because the reddish brown colour was characteristic of the cows in East Denmark. Rude therefore politely changed some to black brindled cows and left some red brindled. Then the whole of Denmark could feel that the pictures represented their interests. Rude's paintings now hang on the back wall of the largest of the chambers of Parliament.