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BAKKEBOELLE PERIOD
1940 - 1945
An immediate
consequence for Skov of the outbreak of the war in the spring of 1940 was
that, for over a year, he would have very little time to dedicate to his
artistic pursuits. As a child, growing up in Strib, he had experienced some
of the deprivations of the First World War, and he understood the advantage
of being away from the city and close to the food supply in the country. He
therefore decided to buy a small farm as remote as he could reasonable come
from Copenhagen while still remaining on the island of Sjaelland. The southern part of Sjaelland, near the old town Vordingborg, has beautiful
landscapes with wooded areas and rolling hills facing towards the south and
shielding against the cold northwestern winds. Skov selected a small farm
in the village of Bakkeboelle, which is located near the coast about
halfway between the towns Vordingborg and Kalvehave, about one hundred
kilometers south of the capital.
With a wide view
out over the nearby waterway and several small islands, the farm was just a
short walk from the beach and next to a forest; and because it was
practically at the very end of the small county road, it gave the
impression of being completely out of the way. Part of the land had been a
planted as a commercial orchard with a variety of apple, pear and plum
trees, and it also had a large utility garden and a separate leisure garden
with lawns and a small duck pond.
Skov renamed the
farm “Gyldenris” after the local abundance of the goldenrod plant, repaired
and then repainted the old farm buildings with a light pastel pink, and
moved the family in at New Years 1941. The farm’s surrounding fields were
leased to the neighboring farmers for a share in the harvest, and he
installed a large, complete vegetable garden in order to have nutritional
autonomy and variety for the family. To develop a seasonal cash crop he
revived the orchard and carefully maintained the fruit trees, purchased a
dozen chickens, two goats, a pig, several ducks, and rabbits. There were
two larger farms within walking distance that could provide milk, meat and
cereals, and fish could be bartered along the coast from several local
fisher families. From the the orchard and the adjacent forest firewood was
plentiful, and thus the farm in Bakkeboelle met the objective of providing
a hideaway with as little visibility as one could obtain in Denmark, and
yet with adequate supplies for the next five difficult years. In a very
real sense the war passed by Bakkeboelle and, except for a few isolated
incidents, left it almost completely undisturbed.
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