En sabinerinne vugger sitt barn

Kristian Zahrtmann was a Danish painter who became an important teacher in Copenhagen, influencing a generation of Danish modernists. This 1877 painting of a Sabine woman rocking her child engages with the tradition of Orientalist and classicizing genre subjects that interested many Scandinavian painters who studied in Rome and Munich during this period. The Sabine women — legendary early Roman figures who were abducted by Romulus's men and became the wives of Rome's first citizens — provided a subject combining classical antiquity with intimate domestic genre. Zahrtmann's interest in Italian subjects prefigures the Italian-inspired work of his later career.

Zahrtmann renders the nursing mother with warm, direct naturalism characteristic of his genre painting, positioning the figure against a background suggesting an ancient Italian setting. His handling is confident and direct, with care given to the relationship between the woman's face and the child, the palette warm and Mediterranean.