1900 - Laurits Holst – With Cheerfulness and Joy
Christie’s Auction House refers to him as a Danish painter and his birth place is given elsewhere as Bogense in Denmark. But it was in America that Laurits Bernhard Holst really made a name for himself as a prolific marine painter who “who “loved the sea and painted with cheerfulness and joy at what he saw.” He was a member of the Chicago Academy and his earlier paintings mostly reflect familiar scenes from the west coast of the United States.
I have no idea whether he ever visited Gibraltar but he did produce several paintings of the Rock. The few that I have been able to obtain digital copies of are dated from 1882 to 1904 - late enough for painters so inclined to use photographs as a basis for their composition.
“Shipping off Gibraltar” with a somewhat unrecognisable Rock in the background
Photograph of the Rock from Campamento in Spain (1880s – James Hollingworth Mann)
Gibraltar (1892)
Gibraltar (1893)
Another similar view
Holst seems to have been influenced by another excellent Danish marine artist, Vilhelm Melbye. The painting below uses a very similar back-drop of the Rock seen more or less from the South. The boat in the foreground also looks very familiar.
Shipping off Gibraltar (1882)
"A Fishing Boat off Gibraltar" (192os)
''Europa Point Gibraltar on a calm day''
This one is the only painting I have found by Holst that is not a seascape. Although both recognisable and realistic, the African mountains across the Straits shown in the background are not.
Did he ever actually visit Gibraltar?