The fisher and lifeboatman Ole Svendsen.

The Fisher and Lifeboatman Ole Svendsen, painted in 1904, belongs to Ancher's sustained series of individual fishermen portraits that constitute one of the most comprehensive pictorial records of a specific fishing community in European art. Ole Svendsen is named in the title, transforming the work from a type-study into a biographical document — this is a specific man, with a dual occupation as fisherman and lifeboat crew member. The lifeboat service was a point of pride in Skagen, the men who risked their own lives to rescue others from the North Sea's storms held in particular respect.

Ancher's portrait of Ole Svendsen demonstrates his characteristic approach to the fisherman portrait: the face rendered with maximum attention, the clothing and background handled more broadly, the sitter presented with a directness that acknowledges rather than idealizes his physical character.