Hans Skalagard is a world renowned marine painter. He has been described as a "living legend" by art critics. He is tall, solid and Viking - still painting almost every day. He has devoted the past fifty years to preserving the heritage of "Ships and the Seas" and has owned a gallery in Carmel, California. This man is a descendant of Vikings and was born in the Faeroe Islands of Denmark in 1924.
He began painting at the age of 8, and at the age of 14 began to carry on the family's seafaring tradition, becoming an apprentice seaman on a square rigged ship (such as "County of Linlithgow" in the painting which is for sale). Thus, he began his experiences that allowed him to create accurate paintings of such ships.
He won his first award at age ten. His nautical family traces their history back to the year 800 when the Vikings settled on the Faroe Islands. He grew up in a Viking drinking house with 8-foot thick walls - to withstand cyclonic winds. At the age of thirteen he became an apprentice seaman on a four-masted barque. He traveled the icy waters north of Iceland and the grain route from Australia to Europe until the 1940s.
Skalagard studied art at Denmark's Royal Academy and with marine artist, Anton Otto Fisher. He and moved to the United States in 1943. In 1955, he became a U.S. citizen and soon married Mignon Diana, his lifelong companion and business partner. Altogether, he has spent more than thirty years at sea and has survived four shipwrecks. He knows the history of the many ships he has painted - "Since I've worked for many years aboard sailing ships, my rigging is absolutely correct, as are the sails, deck house, and other features."
He has been awarded six gold medals, one silver medal, a statue of Victory, and the title "Maestro" - all from Italian academies, with lifetime membership. His biography is carried in Who's Who in American Art, Who's Who in the World, and in several other similar lists.
