Danish painter Peter Severin Kroyer was the most famous of the "Painters of Light" as the Danish artists of Skagen Painting (The Skaw) in the nineteenth century were called.

Kroyer was born in 1851 in the Norwegian port of Stavanger and later studied at the Copenhagen Academy of Arts. The ideals moulding his painting were based on an objective interpretation of nature according to the laws of beauty and harmony. Fully balanced compositions and contours, light as an element of design in perspectives and detailed sketches of figures distinguished his paintings from the broad range of contemporary art. He frequently visited Paris from 1877 onwards. He was permanently influenced by the Impressionism developing there which confirmed his decision to highlight the use of light more as a central element of composition in his paintings.

In 1882 he went to Skagen for the first time, to where he regularly returned subsequently after extensive travel to complete the major part of his works in the summer months. He rapidly developed into the artistic leader of this artists' colony. His inimitable talent of quickly recognizing the characteristic traits of people, landscapes, atmosphere and situations, and reproducing these in his pictures, soon made him into the leading figure of Scandinavian Impressionism. Peter Severin Kroyer died in Skagen in 1909.

All pictures by display/show