Fiskeren

"The Fisherman" is part of five works placed on Lodstorvet. The works tell about Frederikshavn's proximity to the sea. 

Holger Drachmann (1846-1908) was a Danish poet and painter. Drachmann was a friend of the fishermen, and they gave him the nickname Store Tummel after an incident in which Skagen's rescuer, Lars Kruse, in 1879 had been nominated for the Medal of Merit after his work as chairman of the life raft – where he had saved about 200 men from drowning. But when the time came for Kruse to receive the award, it had been sent back with the letter: "Lars Kruse was not an 'honest' man."

In 1844, the then 15-year-old Lars Kruse had sold a piece of "Blue Wood", which was stranded property, and thus Kruse was brought before a judge together with his three friends. The punishment for the offense was a whip and the offense meant that Kruse could not receive his medal many years after the incident.

Drachmann wrote to the town bailiff and pleaded Kruse's case. The letter of June 22, 1879, concludes: "If, however, my mere request in these lines should prove insufficient, then I intend to offer all my energy and the influence I exert in the Danish and Scandinavian press for the benefit of such a worthy client, and I should then very much regret if I, by shedding light on this matter, also came to touch on possible adjoining shadows in the district magistrate's jurisdiction and in the social conditions in Skagen." Kruse received his medal the same autumn. 

The 5 works on Lodstorvet are a gift from the City Foundation to Frederikshavn on the occasion of Frederikshavn's 200th anniversary of the market town.

The photographer behind the pictures at Lodstorvet is Linda Suhr, Suhr Production.