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Shortly after the end of the World War in 1919, the Skov family
moved to Strib, a small town to the north of Middelfart directly across the
mile wide sound “Lillebaelt” from Fredericia, where Rasmus Skov commuted to
high-school until 1924. Nis Skov had sold the ceramics factory in 1919 and
invested the proceeds in several other businesses and industries. For many
years he served on the boards of directors of several industries and also
for a period in elected office in Strib including as county selectman and
chairman and city water commissioner, until his retirement in 1938. He died
in 1963 shortly before his ninety-second anniversary.
Rasmus was talented
in drawing and painting already as a teenager, and his mother encouraged
him to explore an artistic career; however, since his father recognized the
professional and economic merits of first obtaining a traditional
craftsman’s education, he enrolled him in 1924 at the decorative arts
academy “Det Tekniske Selskabs Skole” in Copenhagen. Rasmus studied painting and drawing under Peder
Schou and Carl Einer Madsen and was also placed in apprenticeship with the
decorative painter C. E. Dam. It was during this period from 1926 to 1928
that Skov participated in the decorative restoration of Christiansborg Palace, the former Royal Residence in Copenhagen which now is the seat of the Danish Parliament,
the Danish Prime Minister and the Foreign Service.
Among the people
Skov befriended in Copenhagen during these youthful years of
apprenticeship, and who he would later remember with particular warmth,
were Carl Lund, the chief decorative painter at the “Det Ny Teater”, Poul
Hoem, a fellow arts student and later contemporary modern painter, his
uncle Fritz Holm, who were his mother’s brother, and his three cousins, Otto,
Svend and Fritz.
In the spring of
1928 Skov graduated with honors from the Tekniske Selskabs Skole and was
awarded two silver medals, respectively from “Koebenhavn’s
Haandverkerforening” and the Tekniske Selskab’s Skole, both in recognition
for the quality of his decorative craftsmanship. His final graduation work
consisted of the design and decoration of a cabinet with door panels
inspired by Japanese and Chinese art, using gold and silver leaf-applique
on a decorative ornamental design based on red and black lacquer.
The two silver
medals were accompanied by scholarships from “Det Riersenske Fond” and the
“King Christian Commemorative Fond” by “Selskabet De Massmannske
Soendagsskoler”. These awards confirmed Skov’s belief in the viability of a
future career in the arts and in fact provided a modest degree of financial
freedom to allow him to pursue artistic painting during a series of
extended visits to Southern
Europe the following
year.
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