H. Chr. Christensen, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of P. S. Krøyer no. 785.

Exhibited: Charlottenborg 1909 no. 272.

Provenance: Wholesaler Carl Salomonsen, his auction Winkel & Magnussen 311, 1944 no. 24. Director Christian Vanggaard's collection, Sæby Fiskeindustri (Sæby Fishing Industry).

In the spring of 1909 Krøyer went to the Venice Biennale for the “VIII Esposezione Internationale d'arte della citta Venezia”, where he was invited as a special guest to exhibit with i.a. the Swede Anders Zorn and the Frenchman Paul Albert Besnard. Krøyer exhibited 43 works, among others:

“Sankt Hans-blus på Skagen strand”, ( Midsummer Eve Bonfire on Skagen’s Beach), “Portrættet af Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson”, (The portrait of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson), “Børsens mænd”, (Members of the stock exchange), “Et møde i videnskabernes selskab”, (A meeting in the company of sciences), “Komiteen for den franske udstilling”. (The committee for the French exhibition).

He was quite pleased with what he saw at the exhibition and enjoyed his stay in Venice. After returning to Skagen Krøyer painted a self-portrait and the present full-length portrait of the daughter Vibeke. In the photograph reproduced on page 50, the painting of the daughter Vibeke is placed on an easel in the middle of Krøyer's studio. He has thus daily looked at the portrait of his dear daughter. He died on 21 November at the age of only 58.

Vibeke Krøyer (1895–1985) was born in Skagen to two self-centred parents, namely the painters Marie and Søren, who divorced when Vibeke was 10 years old in 1905. Marie moved with her new love the composer Hugo Alfvén to Sweden, while Vibeke stayed with her father in Skagen, where people such as Helene Christensen and Henny Brodersen took care of her. After nearly 10 years, mother and daughter developed a fragile relationship with each other; but there was never a close bond between them. Vibeke was trained as a journalist and an actress. Neither career was a success. In the late 1960s, she moved to Sweden after inheriting a Swedish property from her half-sister Margita Alfvén.