Fritz Syberg

Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Syberg, generally known as Fritz Syberg, (28 July 1862, Fåborg – 20 December 1939, Kerteminde) was a Danish painter and illustrator, one of the reactionary Fynboerne or "Funen Painters" group living and working on the island of Funen.

Biography

Syberg, from a poor background in Fåborg, first served a house painter's apprenticeship under Syrak Hansen, the father of fellow artist Peter Hansen before attending the Copenhagen Technical School in 1882 where Holger Grønvold taught him drawing. After a short period at the Danish Academy (spring 1884), he attended the Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler (1885–1891) where he was the first of the Fynboerne to study under Kristian Zahrtmann. His travels included Sweden (1899) where he visited Johannes Larsen, Germany (1902), Italy (1905) together with Jens Birkholm, the Netherlands and Paris (1908) and Pisa (1910–1913). Syberg married Syrak Hansen's daughter Anna in 1894 and, after her death in 1914, he married her sister Marie in 1915. He was the father of artist Ernst Syberg and composer Franz Syberg.