Christian Skredsvig

Christian Krohg's 1876 panel portrait of Christian Skredsvig documents an early friendship between two of the most significant Norwegian painters of the late nineteenth century. Skredsvig, who would go on to produce iconic Norwegian landscapes and the symbolist-tinged Drømmende pike (Dreaming Girl, 1885), was Krohg's contemporary and colleague in the tight-knit world of Christiania's emerging art scene. Both men would later travel to France and share the Grez-sur-Loing experience, but in 1876 they were young painters newly trained in the German academic tradition. Mutual portraiture between artist-friends served social as well as artistic purposes in this world — it was a form of record-keeping, solidarity, and practice. The panel format suits the informal, collegial character of the commission: this is a friend observed in a quick sitting, not a formal public portrait.

Oil on panel — the smooth ground and compact scale suit an informal between-friends sitting. Krohg's handling at this early date is carefully academic, with structured light modelling on the face. The format invites close looking at an intimate scale, contrasting with the monumental canvases both artists would later produce.