J.J. Mortensen (1811-188?)

Name : Johan Jacob Mortensen
Born : ca. 1811 in Skive
Death : Uncertain, but probably in the 1880s.
Active as a photographer : ca. 1860-1872

Addresses :

1860-1872 : Studio in the garden of his house on Skovstien (now Torvegade),
behind Gæstgivergården.

Other:

Master painter J. Mortensen opened his photographer business and was permanently established
as a photographer, in June 1860. It was not possible to make a living as a photographer in
Skive, so Mortensen continued to be a painter (as he had been since 1841)
at the same time as he taught gymnastics at Borgerskolen and ran his
own dance school. He stopped working as a photographer and returned fully as a
painter after 1872.

In the 1870 census, he is seen living on plot no. 52 at Reberbanen, together with
with his wife Karen Marie from Aalborg and a relative.

On September 1, 1872, Mortensen transferred his studio to Chr. Christensen in Viborg,
but he gave it up at the end of the year, after which Mortensen handed it over to
madam Nissen and emigrated from Skive to New York in the fall of 1873. Widowed madam
Nissen let Lars Christensen from Viborg manage the studio, but gave up on May 1, 1874,
when she handed it over to A. Rafn.

J.J. Mortensen was living in Skive in 1875, where he was looking for an apprentice to help him
with the painting work.