The Three Bathers

Although a pupil of the Copenhagen Academy of Fine Arts, Paul Fischer largely rejected the traditional teaching of his era. Instead, he followed in the footsteps of a group of younger artists including Krøyer, Locher and Tuxen, whose stylistic tendencies and subject matter were heavily influenced by their travels and studies in Paris in the late 1870s and 1880s and who subsequently heralded a new era in Danish art. Despite the immense influence of Parisian artistic trends at the end of the 19^th century on the development of Danish art, Fischer’s paintings remain quintessentially Danish. Taking his inspiration largely from everyday scenes of daily life, his paintings display a vitality and a sense of immediacy in their subject matter and execution that many of his contemporaries were seeking abroad. His beach scenes in particular demonstrate the influence of the Skagen School, with the dynamism of the sea and sky as much the subject of the painting as his figures.