Painter: Carl (1834-1906) Heyn

Carl Heyn carried a sketchbook like others carry a wallet, always in his coat, always open. He’d sit on Copenhagen’s Nyhavn docks for hours, sketching the boats before they moved, the clouds before they changed. You might mistake his work for a tourist’s postcard at first glance, until you notice how the light on the water isn’t just bright, it’s green.

That exact shade of green appears in his View from the Quay in Nyhavn, where the water looks drinkable. If you walk that same dock at sunset, you’ll see why he kept coming back.