Portrait of a woman with her hear up and wearing a golden necklace.

Portrait of a Woman with Her Hair Up and Wearing a Golden Necklace by Laurits Tuxen, dated around 1900, exemplifies his competent handling of upper-class female portraiture outside the grandest royal commissions that made his reputation. Tuxen was equally at ease with intimate single-figure portraits of the sort that formed the bread and butter of established academic portraitists. The golden necklace singled out in the title indicates that it was a significant element for the sitter or client, likely a piece of jewellery with personal or family meaning. The work is currently unlocated institutionally.

Tuxen applies a polished academic technique to the face and necklace, rendering the jewellery's golden reflections with careful attention to how metal surfaces behave differently from skin and fabric under the same light. The background is kept indistinct, a neutral ground that isolates the figure.