Carl Holsøe

Acquired by the grandparents of the present owners

Enormously popular in his native Scandinavia and throughout the rest of Europe during his lifetime, Holsøe had studied with Vilhelm Hammershøi at the Royal Academy of Copenhagen and, together with Peder Ilsted, they formed the Danish School of Interior Painting. Their influence on one another is palpable in paintings such as the present work. It epitomizes the effects for which they are most celebrated: an atmosphere that is dense, introspective, and immensely alluring to a modern aesthetic.

Holsøe in the present work, has lingered over an intelligent play of reflected light from a central window. While these paintings typically depict fashionable middle-class interiors, objects are juxtaposed to create a kind of narrative or portrait of the subject, elevating them beyond simple decoration. Appearing here and in many of Holsøe's other paintings is a female figure, her back turned, yielding her identity to the imagination or projection of the viewer.

Working in Denmark in the late nineteenth century, Holsøe had likely embraced the literature of Søren Kierkegaard and perhaps the present work and many other paintings in his oeuvre, employ and contribute to the era's changing vision of the individual.