Aksel Jorgensen

Aksel Jørgensen (1883–1957) was a Danish painter and wood engraver. He is also remembered for his years as a professor at the Royal Danish Academy where he instructed many of Denmark's most successful illustrators.

A natural talent, Jørgensen attended Frede Aamodt's private art school (1905–06) where he met Carl Jensen and Vilhelm Wils. He exhibited with De Tretten in 1909, presenting his preferred subjects of prostitutes and the destitute living in condemned buildings in the poorest quarters of Copenhagen, attracting the attention of the press. He was also noted for his engravings, characterized by large areas of light and shade and by his use of the grain of the wood, as in his portrait of the writer Jens Pedersen (1908). Together with Storm P., he founded the satirical journal Gnisten (1908), contributing his own sketches. In 1941, he was awarded the Thorvaldsen Medal for his Prostitution.

From 1909 to 1914, Jørgensen worked on a large series of works illustrating Holger Drachmann's life and poetry for the Drachmann Inn in Frederiksberg. He produced no less than 29 woodcuts during the period, some with multilayered colouring. The art collector Christian Tetzen-Lund commissioned a large group of his works, now characterized by both Rembrandt and, increasingly, Impressionism, inspired by his experience of Cézanne's. work during his travels in 1910. From 1920, he concentrated on composition and perspective, developing the use of colour for still-lifes and figure paintings. Important series included works for the student dormitory Studentergården (1921–23), the cinema Vesterbros Bio (1942) and Arbejdermuseet (1955). His most extensive project consisted of some 50 illustrations for Adam Oehlenschläger's Nordens Guder, published in 1929. It took him many years to engrave the woodcuts and several of his pupils were involved in the technical work. The work had a mixed reception but he was complemented by the French pointillist Paul Signac. He also completed a wide range of portraints including that of the politician Frederik Borgbjerg (1949). In 1935, he became a member of Den Frie Udstilling, an alternative exhibition forum.

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