Provenance: Bruun Rasmussen auction 490, 1987, no. 488.

Lundbye and Frølich had a long and warm friendship. They met through their mutual friend the painter Thorald Læssøe (1816–1878) in 1838, and the next years they developed a very deep and close friendship. It was a romantic friendship - typical for the period - that consisted of profound conversations about the human existence and art and of very strong and deep feelings between the two passionate young men.

In 1840, Frølich went to Munich for further education and a long passionate and emotional correspondence between the two arose.

Lundbye to Frølich (in Danish): 22 November 1840 : “My dear Lorenz! I am beginning this letter to you, whom I miss every day and long for. I cannot hide from myself and others that you were my best friend – the second finest human I have ever known. Yes only she, the lovable mother (...) only she stands in higher regard with me (...) ... ” - and further 8 December 1840: “... There are many fine people here, but none, not one that can replace you or even get close to you in my eyes.(...).” Quoted from: Lotte Thrane: “Tusmørkemesteren. 10 kapitler om Lorenz Frølich og hans tid", 2008, vol.1, p. 59 and p. 60.

Reading Lundbye's diary from the Christmas in 1844, it appears as if he was very discouraged at the time – he writes, among other things, Christmas Day, 25 December 1844 (in Danish): “The thought makes my heart sing: that one can die – that is the goal of my wishes, and I shall see it fulfilled one day!” Later that day, he writes: “Just now I received an invitation to Vallø. Well, if there's room for me on the day coach, I'll follow Lorenz Frølich there tomorrow. Without money, without food, without desire, without life – only with my breath – a lovely Christmas guest!!!” After this very despondent comment, he writes again in the diary a few days later on New Year's Eve 1844, now with a completely different and considerably more uplifting spirit: “Journey to Vallø. After a very pleasant stay at Vallø with Councillor (Kancelliråd) Steenbergs, I have returned back to the city today. I sketched several landscapes there and made the acquaintance of a very amiable student called Steenstrup, who was my guest last night. Now comes the new year; it begins with a fervent hope, God bless me with strength and desire, that this year will be better than the previous one.”

(Johan Thomas Lundbye's diaries “Kilder til Dansk Kunsthistorie” (ktdk.dk), (Primary Sources in Danish Art History) by MA and PhD in art history Jesper Svenningsen and published by the The New Carlsberg Foundation).

The present portrait is Frølich's deeply felt and sensitive portrait of the friend during their stay on Vallø during this particular period, where Lundbye's mood goes from Christmas Day's deep discouragement, melancholic thinking and focus on death to New Year's Eve's burgeoning joy, faith and hope for better times in the new year. Half a year later, in the summer of 1845, Lundbye travelled to Italy, and the two friends never saw each other again.