Lise Svanholm, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of Laurits Tuxen, 1990, nr. 728.

Exhibited: Charlottenborg, Laurits Tuxen mindeudstilling, 1929 no. 200.

Literature: “Tuxen - farver, friluft og fyrster”, exhibition catalogue 2014, mentioned and ill. p. 134.

Provenance: Lawyer Krautwald (1929).

In 1901, Tuxen together with his wife, Frederikke, acquired a house in Skagen to be able to live there during the summer, and here he began his career as a Skagen painter. At this time Skagen had become a fashionable bathing place, and in the summer people came in large numbers to relax and recreate. In the following years, Tuxen painted a number of vitalistic works from the beaches around Skagen with a focus on the naked female body. These works are a tribute to the healthy naked body that enjoys the sun, the air, the sea and the beach without any shame at all.

The Venus rising from the sea, also called Venus Anadyomene, is a recurring motif for Tuxen in these years, and they are a reference to Greco-Roman mythology and the many classical models in the art of sculpture and painting, such as Sandro Botticelli's (1445–1510) “Birth of Venus” from 1485. The female figure has the same classical contrapposto position and long flowing red hair, but where Botticelli's Venus chastely covers her breasts and sex, Tuxen's stands proudly in all her nudity without blush and with raised arms. Her red hair glows like flames in the backlight, and she is alone surrounded by sky, sea and sun.