Exhibited: Den Frie 1895 no. 3 entitled “Portræt af en ung Maler” (Portrait of a Young Painter).

Provenance: Director Hansen (1895).

Clement and his friend and colleague Carl Frydensberg were Symbolist painters, and both were part of the circle of Danish Nabis, together with Ludvig Find (1869–1945) and Mogens Ballin (1871–1914). Through their friendship and artistic community, they joined and cultivated the syntheticism and anti-naturalistic artistic ideals of the French Les Nabis.

In 1893, Carl Frydensberg traveled to Germany and Italy with e.g. L.A. Ring (1854–1933) and Vilhelm (1864–1916) and Ida Hammershøi (1869–1949) as traveling companions, and later that year Clement also traveled to Italy. Frydensberg and Clement stayed here in 1893–94, and a letter from Frydensberg on 4 December 1893 shows that he is about to start a portrait of Clement. The present painting, which is dated 1894 in the exhibition catalogue from Den Frie, presumably also dates from the stay in Italy.

The present painting has erroneously been registered by Poul Vad as being made by Vilhelm Hammershøi (Poul Vad, “Hammershøi. Work and Life”, 1988, pp. 26 and 451).