Life wasn’t easy for the Norwegian artist Peder Severin Krøyer (1851–1909). At a young age, he was ripped from the arms of his unfit mother and handed to foster parents in Copenhagen. Nevertheless, his artistic talent, especially in portraiture, soon won him a place at the Royal Danish Academy of Art. After graduating he looked to Skagen, located on the northern tip of Denmark and home to a community of en plein air artists. Emulating the French Impressionists, the Skagen painters broke away from rigid artistic methods. Krøyer moved there in 1891, and for 10 years he painted the town’s personalities and landscapes, bathing his subjects in subtle light. In collaboration with the Skagen Museum, the Musée brings a group of Krøyer’s major works to France for the first time. —E.C.