Exhibited: The Skovgaard Museum/The Hirshcsprung Collection/Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, “In the Light of Italy. A Danish-Norwgian Artist Community 1879–1886”, 2016, no. 10. Ill. in catalogue p. 24, fig. 18.

Provenance: Bruun Rasmussen Vejle auction 102, 2005 no. 33 (here erroneously described as “Torello 1890”). Christie's, “Old Masters & 19th Century Art”, 2015 no. 226.

Krøyer arrived in Sora on 1 May 1880 and, apart from a brief trip to Turin and Paris in June, remained there until mid-October. His stay would prove to be of great artistic significance. He once again immersed himself in open-air painting, creating the large-scale work “Italienske Markarbejdere. Abruzzerne” (Italian Field Workers. The Abruzzi) (Art museum Brandts, Odense), with the dimensions 124×186 cm, out in the open air, and not least the famous “Italienske landsbyhattemagere. Sora” (Italian Village Hatters. Sora) (The Hirschsprung Collection), which received glowing praise from French critics when exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1881, and helped establish Krøyer’s international reputation. In Denmark, however, the painting was met with a far more lukewarm reception — in particular, the hatmaker’s sweat-dripping nose provoked outrage, and many reviewers went so far as to call the subject ‘repulsive’.

In between his major exhibition pieces, Krøyer also found time to produce a number of small oil sketches, serving as snapshots of the place and everyday life in Sora. Among them is the present work, depicting a narrow, shadowy alley in the town, where Krøyer explores the contrasts between light and shade within the characteristic architecture of the Italian village — and in the transition between interior and exterior space.