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Niels Strøbek (born 1944)

Niels Strøbek (born October 14th 1944) is a Danish painter and graphic artist, primarily working within in the field of neorealism.

Unlike other Danish neorealists, Strøbek is not influenced by American photorealism, a trend that had barely begun when Niels Strøbek displayed his first neorealist paintings in 1966. Photorealism did not become known in Scandinavia until 1971-72. The neorealism Niels Strøbek represents belongs to the Euroopean realist tradition, whose roots go as far back as 15th-century Flemish art. Niels Strøbek's early art in particular shows a deliberate use of stylistic elements from that era, in the form of archaic stylisaation and careful, detailed realism. Traces of early Florentine Renaisssance art can also be seen in the strong effect of plasticity and clear local colours in the Danish artist's pictures.

In terms of subject, Strøbek’s paintings can be divided into three categories: still-life, exteriors and portraits (of individuals as well as groups). The first and the third of these dominate his oeuvre.

Strøbek has executed many portraits, notably three commissioned by the Danish queen Margrethe II .

Niels Strøbek is educated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts which he attended from 1962 – 1967, studying under spontaneous-abstract painter Professor Egill Jacobsen.