A fisherman. (painting by M. Ancher)

A Fisherman. (Painting by M. Ancher), painted in 1904, is one of the more generically titled works in Ancher's late fishermen series — the parenthetical attribution in the title suggesting this work was identified from a group rather than exhibited under a specific name. The generic designation 'a fisherman' rather than a named individual indicates either that Ancher did not record the sitter's name or that the model was used as a type rather than a specific individual. Even so, his handling of the face is too particular and attentive to be purely a type-study — someone specific was observed.

The work demonstrates Ancher's late-career approach to the fisherman subject at its most essential — face, expression, the specific character of an individual from the Skagen community — without the distraction of elaborate setting or compositional elaboration. The directness of the portrait gaze creates the characteristic quality of mutual acknowledgment between sitter and viewer.