Carl Ludwig Bille

Carl Ludwig Bille (1815 - 1898) was a Danish marine painter who went to sea for many years before becoming an artist. Bille was self-taught but had received guidance from his colleague Carl Dahl, whose painting style his early works resemble. Little is known about his life. In the early 1860s, he exhibited subjects from North America and China, and in 1869 from Madeira. Whether these subjects were personally experienced, as a sailor or an artist, is not documented. His range of subjects expanded over time to include shipwrecks, naval battles, all kinds of vessels in all kinds of weather, painted in a romantic spirit. In his later years, he exhibited subjects from the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, Norway, and Holland.