Harald Giersing

Harald Giersing
Harald Giersing, Self-portrait, 1915
Born	(1881-04-24)24 April 1881 Copenhagen, Denmark
Died	15 January 1927(1927-01-15) (aged 45) Copenhagen, Denmark
Nationality	Danish
Education	Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
Known for	Painting
Movement	Modernism

Harald Giersing (24 April 1881 - 15 January 1927), a Danish painter, was instrumental in developing the classic modernism movement in Denmark around 1910-1920. He is remembered as one of Denmark's most important 20th-century artists both for his portraits and landscapes.

Giersing, who died at the early arge of 45, was driven by a desire to concentrate on change and beauty. Unable to find support in religion, he adopted modernism as an existential approach as to how art could fill the void for those without faith in God. While some synergies with the work of Vilhelm Lundstrøm can be detected, he differed from contemporaries such as Niels Larsen Stevns, Sigurd Swane and Edvard Weie in that he sought to represent images just as he had seen them, almost in the form of photographs.

When he arrived in Paris in 1906, he was immediately taken by Gauguin but within a year it was Édouard Manet who became his ideal, soon to be followed by Cézanne and also the neo-impressionist Paul Signac. By 1907, he had begun to show interest in the Fauvists, including Derain, Othon Friesz, Manguin, Marquet and Puy and especially Braque. All this experience helped him to attain his own way of thinking, although he was ever wary of becoming "complete" as he believed it would inhibit his further development as an artist.

He soon adopted a heavy, rather rough style with rough colours, partly inspired by Ernst Ludvig Kirchner. His painting The Judgment of Paris (1909) presents three female figures with broad dark blue outlines and rather confusing proportions.