Dinner party in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Dinner Party in Wiesbaden, Germany by Peder Severin Krøyer, dated 1904, documents a social occasion in the German spa city that was among the most fashionable in Europe for wealthy Scandinavians and Germans alike. Wiesbaden attracted the cultured bourgeoisie for its thermal springs, its casino, and its cultural life, and Krøyer — who traveled widely despite his increasing health problems — evidently attended or witnessed a formal dinner gathering there. Interior scenes of social dining and conversation belonged to a long tradition of Scandinavian genre painting that Krøyer inflected with Impressionist light and psychological directness. The work is currently unlocated institutionally.

Krøyer captures artificial interior light — candles or gas lamps — as it falls across faces and table settings, using warm highlights against darker surroundings to create atmosphere. His handling of the social gathering as a group rather than a formal portrait allows for looser, more suggestive brushwork in the figures.