Lake Scene
Essay

The landscapes, seascapes, and still-lifes of Emil Carlsen have an unparalleled rhythm and harmony; he stood apart from his contemporaries by virtue of his unique aesthetic vision. Carlsen studied architecture, painting, and sculpture in his native Denmark, and immigrated to Chicago in 1872. After six months of study in Paris in 1875, he returned to Chicago to teach at the newly founded Academy of Design, and left again for Paris in 1884 to study the work of still-life artist Jean-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779). Carlsen moved in 1887 to San Francisco, where he had been invited to be Director of the California School of Design. He later taught privately at the San Francisco Art Students League, and relocated to New York in 1891.

Carlsen continued to teach after his permanent return from the Bay Area, both at the National Academy of Design and later at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He began to exhibit widely after the turn of the century, and became associated with a number of established organizations such as the National Academy of Design, the Society of American Artists, and the Salmagundi Club. He purchased a home in the idyllic town of Falls Village, Connecticut in 1905 for him and his family to use as a summer retreat from the city. He divided his time between Connecticut and New York for the remainder of his life, aside from occasional sojourns to Vermont, Maine, and Denmark.