Harald Giersing, To damer, 1922, KMS3653, Statens Museum for Kunst

Harald Giersing, 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 age 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 Edouard 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.