Artwork
A Young Girl Plaiting her Hair
A Young Girl Plaiting her Hair is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Anna Ancher. It dates from 1901 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
As a portrait, the work focuses on this specific moment of personal grooming, highlighting the subject's concentration and the quiet atmosphere of the room.
Anna Ancher's 1901 oil painting portrays a young girl engaged in the intimate, everyday act of plaiting her hair. The composition situates the figure within a domestic interior, characterized by the presence of a window, a table, and a vase. As a portrait, the work focuses on this specific moment of personal grooming, highlighting the subject's concentration and the quiet atmosphere of the room.
The inclusion of natural light from the window and simple household objects underscores the artist's interest in capturing realistic scenes of daily life rather than employing complex allegorical symbolism.
Technique & Style
Created in 1901, this portrait by Anna Ancher is executed in oil paint on a canvas support. The work measures 69 cm in height and 56.5 cm in width. Visually, the composition depicts a young girl engaged in the act of plaiting her hair, situated within an interior setting that includes a window, a table, and a vase.
As a painting, it utilizes the medium to render the figure and surrounding domestic elements, characteristic of the artist's approach to portraiture during this period.
History & Provenance
Anna Ancher created the oil painting A Young Girl Plaiting her Hair in 1901. The work depicts a girl seated near a window, accompanied by a table and a vase, executed in oil on canvas. It is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, and was included in the exhibition From Golden Age to Cobra: 150 years of Danish Art, organized by the museum.
Context
Anna Ancher’s A Young Girl Plaiting her Hair (1901) is emblematic of her mature practice within Danish realism and Skagenmalerne (Skagen Painters) circles, where light, interior space, and quotidian subjects became vehicles for psychological depth. Critics of the period emphasized her ability to render the quiet concentration of the girl amid domestic light, situating the work within broader Nordic trends that elevated interior scenes to allegories of modern life.
The painting’s inclusion in From Golden Age to Cobra: 150 Years of Danish Art signals its recognition within Danish art history, linking Ancher’s intimate compositions to the evolution of Danish modernism. Its placement in the Statens Museum for Kunst collection underscores its canonical status in Danish cultural memory, where Ancher’s oeuvre is associated with the transition from naturalism to early modernist experimentation.
Overview
Anna Ancher, a prominent member of the Skagen Painters, completed A Young Girl Plaiting her Hair in 1901. This oil painting captures a young woman engaged in the intimate act of braiding her hair, illuminated by natural light. The work exemplifies Ancher's focus on everyday life and her distinctive use of light. It is currently housed in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Anna Ancher (18 August 1859 – 15 April 1935) was a Danish artist associated with the Skagen Painters, an artist colony on the northern point of Jylland, Denmark. She is considered to be one of Denmark's greatest visual artists.
