Karl Madsen, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of Johan Thomas Lundbye no. 90 (under 1840–1841).

Exhibited: Kunstforeningen, “Malerier af Johan Thomas Lundbye (1818–1848)”, 1931 no. 52.

Literature: “Kunst i Privat Eje”, volume I, 1944 reproduced and mentioned p. 366 (in Danish): “The finest of consul's wife Chr. G. Hansen's artwork, could actually be a small study for the National Gallery's ”En malkescene“ (Milking Scene). Lundbye participated in the competition for the Neuhausen Prize, where the task was to create a milking scene inspired by Christian Winther's poem ”Aftenmøde" (Evening Rendezvous):

Sit quietly near your red cow, And please do not be afraid; We've gossiped often, you and I, So many hundreds of times I sit softly in the clover, All the while you milk the cow, The forest’s cuckoo calls sweetly, And a stork stalks about the marsh.

Lundbye did not win the prize!

The study “contains all of Lundbye's most endearing qualities in the depiction of the Zealand landscape: his gentle romanticism and his infatuated enthusiasm for the characterful lines in this landscape” (“Kunst i Privat Eje”, p. 366).

Karl Madsen, “Johan Thomas Lundbye 1818–1848”, 1949, mentioned p. 68 and depicted p. 73. The author writes about Lundbye's relationship to nature: “The perception of nature is closely related to the poetry on nature in the Danish writing of the time. The air was full of song and sounds, of Christian Winther's Zealandic and Blicher's Jutlandic poetry, and the basic chord, with reminiscing sounds from myths and sagas, was struck by Oehlenschläger and Grundtvig. The seawalls sang their own soul into nature, and the painters could not remain deaf to their song.”

The charming painting is a study for a painting at the National Gallery of Denmark: “Motif from Christian Winther's woodcut “Aftenmøde” (Evening Rendezvous). The landscape from Dronningholms Slotsbanke” (Inv. No. KMS431).

Provenance: Blacksmith F.W. Doberck. Consul Chr. G. Hansen. The collection of Consul's wife mrs Chr. Hansen (1944). Wholesaler Erling Hansen. Bruun Rasmussen auction 421, 1981 no. 131, depicted on the frontispiece.