Three Smiths at Hornbæk
Peder Severin Krøyer was a 19th Century Danish painter who became prominent because of his figural and landscape paintings. Krøyer’s stylish and elegant recreational masterpieces were significant contributors to the success of the Skagen art colony from the 1880s to the 1890s. His works changed the perceptions of the people about the Kattegat Sea from threatening waters to a serene site for playful children and romantic encounters. After graduating from college at nineteen, Krøyer had already gained ground as a promising painter in Denmark. Most important, Krøyer’s work experienced pronounced success beyond the borders of his home country. Five years after college he produced the first painting of Three Smiths at Hornbæk. Two years later, in 1877, made the final version of the painting (Nielsen and Wistoff 408). The aim of this paper is to reflect on the message depicted in the Three Smiths at Hornbæk.
The painting depicts the daily operations of a seasoned blacksmith in Hornbæk. The master blacksmith is working with an apprentice and a journeyman. The master is holding a large piece of work using a pair of tongs. While the apprentice is operating the bellows, the journey man is hitting the piece of work with a metal to forge the anticipated shape. The picture creates a mental picture of what it was like to work in the blacksmithing industry in the 19th Century. The painting shows the equipment that the metal worker used to produce his products. The furnace was where the blacksmith smelted iron to make it easier to create a desired shape. The anvil was a heavy surface made of a block of steel upon which the worker hammered his iron piece. The tongs were for holding the work piece during hammering. Other paraphernalia included chisels and hammers for welding, flattening, shaping, and cutting iron (Jouttijärvi 975-976).
The painting does not reveal the exact objects that the blacksmiths are making. However, it is possible to deduce the type of finished products from the size of the workshop, the number of workers, and the tools seen in the picture. They may have included diverse objects used on a day to day basis. Such objects include fasteners like nails, bolts, screws; agricultural implements such as axes, plowshare, and sickles; artisan tools like hammers and chisels; candlesticks and other household articles; fireplace implements and fittings; cables, chains, and spikes for sailors; and both decorative and functional ironwork used in the building and furniture trades (Jouttijärvi 977).
Source: (artinthepicture.com)
However, farriery was the most common occupation of Danish blacksmiths in the 19th Century. The blacksmith would first clean and shape the rim and sole of the hoof a horse. The process is painless because the hoof is nerveless, horny, and tough. The metal worker would then select a horse shoe of the right size from his store, heat it in a furnace till it was red-hot, modify the shape to fit well into the foot, cool it with water, and use nails to affix it on the hoof. Most villages and towns such as Hornbæk had a shop belonging to a blacksmith. Resident would visit the shop to buy new articles or have the iron worker repair old ones. However, at the time Krøyer made the masterpiece, the blacksmithing industry was declining because factories made most iron equipment and the use of the horse in transport and agriculture was also losing ground (Jouttijärvi 978).
The painting also evokes emotion of how the division of labor in those days was formulated. Krøyer infers that a person would join the trade as an apprentice and after sufficient training he would become a journeyman. The apprentice would first learn less technical jobs such as operating the bellows. The youngster used the bellows to add air into the fuel in order to increase combustion rate and the output of heat. As aforementioned, metal workers would then place metals in the furnace. After learning the general less-professional operations such as placing iron in the forge, cleaning the store, hanging tools after work, packaging finished products, and delivering orders, the apprentice would graduate to begin his course as a journeyman. The journeyman worked together with the master blacksmith to produce finished products. Before beginning to produce new products, he had to learn how to repair old tools brought in by customers. Afterwards, the journeyman would begin working on less complicated products like horseshoes before beginning to make sophisticated objects. After sufficient training, the master blacksmith would employ the journeyman as a full-time blacksmith to assist him in business. Later on, the blacksmith would open a shop after acquiring skill and initial cost outlay (Jouttijärvi 979-980).
Krøyer was a famous Danish painter who spent the whole of his life producing paintings that depict the day-to-day life of the common people. The Three Smiths at Hornbæk evokes two main emotions; what it was like to work in the Danish blacksmithing industry and the sharing of work in a typical metal worker shop.
Works cited
“An introduction to art history: Peder Severin Krøyer.” artinthepicture. N.d. Web. 14
Dec. 2012.
Jouttijärvi, Arne. “The Shadow In The Smithy.” Materials & Manufacturing Processes 24.9 2009: 975-980.
Nielsen, Henry, and Brigitte Wistoff. “Painting Technological Progress.” Technology & Culture 39.3.1998: 408.
