Early Life, Family and Training Born on 22 November 1851 in Holstebro, Denmark, Karl Jensen entered a world shaped by the steady hands of his parents, merchant Søren Harpøth Jensen and Christine Møller. His early years were not spent amidst the fine oils of a studio, but rather in the heat and heavy labor of the forge. During the 1860s, he served an apprenticeship as a small blacksmith, a period of manual toil that preceded his eventual pursuit of the brush. This practical beginning provided a foundation of discipline before he ever sought to capture the light of the Danish landscape. The p…