Emil Carlsen Danish by birth, and originally trained as an architectural draftsman, Emil Carlsen was distinguished for his still-life painting as well as later in his career for his Impressionist land and seascapes. He first came to the United States in 1872, teaching for three years at the Art Institute of Chicago. He then traveled to Paris to study painting, but was forced to return to the United States after only six months because of financial difficulties. Upon his return, he settled in New York where he built his reputation as a still life specialist, but he returned to Paris from 1884 to 1886. The earliest criticism written on Carlsen's work emphasizes the relation to the work of Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin, the principal artist that got the attention of Carlsen in Paris. Of Carlsen's work, William Gerdts wrote: "the tonal harmonies are very close and evince Carlsen's preference for the monochromatic-grays, silver, and beige tones-embodying an aesthetic in still life that closely resembles the contemporaneous tonalist or Quietist movement in landscape painting.

Biography with permission from AskArt.com

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