Biography
He was the son of a butcher and grew up in Copenhagen in a lower middle class/worker’s milieu whose jargon is felt in much of his writings. After an interrupted study on the Academy of Art, he worked as a free-lance painter, illustrator and cabaret entertainer. Already during World War I he was a well-known artist, and from about 1920 onward he was almost a national “institution” as a humorist, partly because of his versatile interests. He was for many years connected to the Copenhagen newspaper “Berlingske Tidende” as a comic writer and cartoonist.
As a humorist, Storm P. is related to British and American humour, with a strong touch of craziness and absurdity. However, he is less marked by total nonsense than, for instance, Lewis Carroll. Often his starting point is a plain Copenhagen jargon, combined with a Danish down-to-earth homespun philosophy and all kinds of cosy fun and comedy; the “little” man’s unimpressed comments on a crazy world.
Though normally loved by most of his countrymen, Storm P. has also been criticised for being too toothless, cosy and petit bourgeois. In spite of his social background and interest of poor milieus, he very seldom shows deeper social criticism or revolutionary opinions; the dramatic age in which he lived left rather small stamps on his work. On the other hand he was no staunch giggler; many of his paintings deal with death, sorrow and macabre themes. Though not a revolutionary, he has indeed painted the victims of social injustice and misery, often with a strong touch of compassion. Melancholy and fear are not unknown to him, but his official appearance was an optimistic one.
1977 a "Storm P. Museum" was opened. In 1982 he was featured on a Danish stamp.
Read more about this topic: Robert Storm Petersen
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)
“As we approached the log house,... the projecting ends of the logs lapping over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long, with many large apartments ... a style of architecture not described by Vitruvius, I suspect, though possibly hinted at in the biography of Orpheus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)