Beschreibung:

L. A. Ring (b. Ring 1854, d. Roskilde 1933) “Foraaret og den gamle”. View from Sankt Jørgensbjerg in Roskilde with an old man looking out the window. Signed L. A. Ring and dated 1926. Oil on canvas. 58×78 cm. Exhibited: Charlottenborg, 1927 no. 469. Dansk målarkonst, Helsingfors, 1928 no. 141. Forum, “Det danske kunststævne”, 1929 no. 374. Stockholm, 1930 no. 115. Charlottenborg, “Mindeudstillingen for L. A. Ring”, 1933 no. 208. The National Gallery of Denmark and Randers Kunstmuseum, “På kanten af verden”, 2006–2007 no. 81. Literature: Peter Hertz, "Maleren L. A. Ring 1854–1933”, 1934, mentioned and reproduced on p. 407. Carl M. Woel, “L. A. Ring. Et levnedsrids”, 1937, mentioned on p. 36. Henrik Wivel, “L. A. Ring”, 1997, reproduced on p. 59, and mentioned on pp. 59–60. The National Gallery of Denmark and Randers Art Museum, “På kanten af verden”, 2006–2007, reproduced pp. 123, 129 and 247, and mentioned on pp. 129 and 247. Henrik Wivel, “L. A. Ring. Det glasklare hjerte”, 2020, reproduced on p. 273, and mentioned on pp. 273–274. Provenance: The collection of J. H. Melchior, his auction, Winkel & Magnussen 246, 1939 no. 21. Bruun Rasmussen auction 469, 1985 no. 146, reproduced on p. 29. Thence in private Danish ownership. Throughout his whole life, Laurits Andersen Ring dealt with thresholds as a motif in his paintings, which he used to symbolize the various transitions between the life stages of man and nature. In the landscapes, it could be the contrast between the ploughed and the unploughed soil or old, worn-out houses opposite modern telegraph poles. In the figure paintings, it was especially the contrast between the young and old that Ring worked with, more specifically human beings on the threshold of a new chapter – or an end. Peter Nørgaard Larsen explains: “In Ring's threshold images, one is usually situated in a sort of limbo, in front of the doorway or by the window, hesitating and waiting to be able to unite with the world outside the passageway. With Ring, it is often about a movement from inside to outside, both physically and mentally. The human figure is waiting to connect with and become part of the surrounding world. In other cases, the transitional phase is of a more definitive nature and relates to the ultimate transgression, death.” (On the Edge of the World, pp. 128–129). Henrik Wivel discusses the present painting in the context of the other threshold motifs that Ring painted in the final years of his life. One of these is “In the doorway. Ole Ring Sankt Jørgensbjerg” from 1925, which depicts the painter’s son Ole standing by the same window with Roskilde Cathedral in the background (Ordrupgaard, inv. No. 380). He gazes wistfully out at the bare trees as if longing for the coming spring. And as Wivel points out, spring will come to the young Ole – but not to the old man. The two are standing at different thresholds in their lives, and for one of them – it is his last. About the painting of the old man, Wivel writes: “He too is standing and looking at the spring, which has now arrived with sprouting buds and light green leaves. Behind him hangs a straw hat as a sign of the coming summer. But it's clearly not the older, grey-bearded man's summer. He is not part of the coming flowering; he is part of Ring himself with a slightly resigned look in the eyes and the cathedral towers in the background.” (Laurits Andersen Ring The Limpid Heart, pp. 273–274). When Ring paints this piece, he is 72 years old and has been a widower for three years. The death of his beloved wife, Sigrid, had left him in deep sorrow. Peter Nørgaard Larsen, who regards the work as a kind of self-portrait, writes: “The old man is the same age as Ring and painted three years after Sigrid's death, it is a painting that contains both the artist's loneliness and the realization that the journey of his life is approaching its conclusion” (On the Edge of the World, p. 129). Here, Ring paints his
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