Music in the studio

Peder Severin Krøyer's 1886 interior of a musical gathering in an artist's studio belongs to his series of intimate, light-filled domestic and studio scenes that are among the most beloved works in Danish art. 'Music in the Studio' captures the informal social life of the artistic community — gathered around an instrument in a warm, lamplit interior. Krøyer's skill at rendering the quality of artificial light in interior spaces was exceptional, and these studio scenes are among the most technically accomplished examples of late 19th-century Scandinavian interior painting.

The warm artificial light of the studio interior creates the painting's central challenge and achievement — Krøyer renders the transition from the lamplight's warm glow to the cooler shadows of the periphery with exquisite control. Figures are placed in informal, natural poses, rendered with his characteristic lightness of touch and delicacy of tone.