Karl Madsen, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of J. Th. Lundbye, 1895, no. 71, mentioned pp. 64–65 and ill. p. 64.

Exhibited: Kunstforeningen, “Arbejder af Johan Thomas Lundbye”, 1893 no. 497. Kunstforeningen, “Malerier af Johan Thomas Lundbye”, 1931 no. 114a.

Literature: Karl Madsen, “Malerier af Johan Thomas Lundbye”, 1931, ill. no. 14.

Provenance: Bought by Kunstforeningen (The Art Association) and was disposed of by lottery at Kunstforeningen in 1840, here won by Secher, Randers. Baron Juul Rysensteen (1893, 1895). Director Max Lester, his auctions, part II, Winkel & Magnussen 26, 1924 no. 64. Manager A. J. Andersen (1931). Leif Willer Andersen. Bruun Rasmussen auction 105, 1959 no. 198, ill. p. 35. Bruun Rasmussen auction 123, 1960 no. 144, ill. p. 45. Bruun Rasmussen auction 149, 1962 no. 170, ill. p. 33. Kunsthallen auction 315, 1976 no. 128, ill. p. 23. Bruun Rasmussen auction 737, 2004 no. 2044, ill. p. 50–51.

Karl Madsen describes the motif and the time of the creation of the painting as follows (in Danish): “[...] in August and September he stayed in Kalundborg and Vallekilde and made excursions to Vognserup, Skarritsøen and the old manor house of Vedbygaard. From these excursions he brought home with him many dear memories, a rich treasure of great study drawings and the motifs for the three large and significant paintings that occupied him the following winter and the following spring. The first of them, Bay of Kalundborg Fjord, at the forest of Asnæs, was completed in December 1839 [...]. South of the fjord, just opposite Refsnæs, Asnæs Dyrehave is located on a narrow isthmus; not far from where the forest gives way to an uncultivated common at the outermost tip with single standing wind-swept trees and gnawed hawthorns, there are a couple of houses by a small inlet, which is called Havnemark. Lundbye seems to have been here at the end of the summer, but the painting shows us an autumn day with cloudy air and some rays of sunshine; a white stag and a brown hind prance into the water; yet in this remote place the animals - really only deer - are the living creatures you most frequently meet and see. The water is somewhat coloured in the painting, but the refracted light on the withered leaves of the trees is well rendered, and the beautiful lines of the coast and the forest give it a great and solemn majesty of its own. It seems to have been dear to Lundbye, because he drew it several times [...], most beautifully in the drawing he gave to Kunstforeningen, who bought the painting” (Madsen, 1895, s. 64–65).