Portrait.

Peder Severin Krøyer was among the most talented of the Scandinavian artists who flooded Paris in the 1870s and 1880s, absorbing Impressionist light and color while maintaining a northern directness of observation. His early portraits from this period show his rapid mastery of the fashionable loose brushwork and psychologically probing approach he had encountered in French academic circles. Krøyer would go on to become the most celebrated member of the Skagen colony, but his Paris years were essential to his formation, and his portraits from this period already display the confident characterization that made him famous.

Krøyer's portrait demonstrates the plein-air-inflected technique he absorbed in Paris — loose, confident brushwork in the background and clothing contrasting with more careful modeling of the face. His palette is warm and responsive to natural light, avoiding the dark glazed tones of older academic portraiture.