Artwork
An Evening Party in the Artist's Home
An Evening Party in the Artist's Home is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Viggo Johansen. It dates from 1900 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting depicts an intimate social gathering within the artist's residence, featuring six specific individuals identified as guests and family members.
The painting depicts an intimate social gathering within the artist's residence, featuring six specific individuals identified as guests and family members. The scene portrays Julius Petersen, Valdemar Irminger, Oscar Wandel, Karl Madsen, Vilhelm Hammershøi, Elisabeth Wandel, and Harald Høffding interacting in a domestic setting. Created in 1899, the work captures a moment of evening leisure among these figures, reflecting the social circles of the Danish art world at the turn of the century.
The composition serves as a historical record of these specific personalities, presenting them in a candid, unposed manner that emphasizes their personal connections rather than formal portraiture.
Technique & Style
An Evening Party in the Artist's Home is an oil painting on canvas, executed in 1899 by Viggo Johansen. The work measures 127.0 cm in height by 189.0 cm in width, a broad horizontal canvas suited to its interior group-scene subject. Executed in oil paint and classified as a painting, the work belongs to the genre of intimate domestic interior scenes associated with Johansen's late nineteenth-century practice.
History & Provenance
The painting was created in 1899 by Viggo Johansen, as confirmed by both the artist’s date and the work’s inclusion in the Statens Museum for Kunst collection with a recorded inception year of 1899.
The work depicts a group portrait of the artist’s contemporaries, including Julius Petersen, Valdemar Irminger, Oscar Wandel, Karl Madsen, Vilhelm Hammershøi, Elisabeth Wandel, and Harald Høffding, indicating it was produced to document a social and artistic gathering rather than commissioned for a public or institutional setting.
An Evening Party in the Artist's Home is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst in Denmark. The painting, executed in oil on canvas, forms part of the museum's holdings of late nineteenth-century Danish art.
No specific inventory or accession number is recorded in the available sources, and no exhibition history is documented beyond its inclusion in the Statens Museum for Kunst collection.
Overview
Viggo Johansen, a prominent Danish painter and a key figure among the Skagen artists, completed An Evening Party in the Artist's Home in 1900. This oil painting captures an intimate domestic gathering, featuring four specific individuals: Elisabeth Wandel, Harald Høffding, Julius Petersen, and Karl Madsen. The work exemplifies Johansen's interest in depicting social interactions within private spaces, rendered with a focus on light characteristic of his artistic circle. It is currently housed in the collection of Statens Museum for Kunst.
Context
As one of Denmark's leading painters in the 1890s and a central member of the Skagen Painters, Viggo Johansen was deeply influenced by the group's emphasis on natural light and plein-air painting. While many Skagen artists focused on outdoor scenes, Johansen often translated this concern for light into interior settings. An Evening Party in the Artist's Home exemplifies his ability to apply the group's stylistic principles to domestic subjects, creating a distinct contribution to Danish art.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Viggo Johansen (3 January 1851 – 18 December 1935) was a Danish painter and active member of the group of Skagen Painters who met every summer in the north of Jutland. He was one of Denmark's most prominent painters in the 1890s.
