Exhibited: Kunstforeningen, “Christen Købke”, 1953 no. 95 (and not no. 96 as indicated in handwriting on the reverse of the painting). Here with the comment (in Danish): “Inscribed not with the painter's hand: Købke Capri.”

In the Catalogues Raisonné by Mario Krohn (1915) and Jørgen Folmer and Iben From (1996) three versions of the present motif are mentioned (in both Catalogues Raisonné no. 177, 178 and 179).

It does not seem as if the painting here is among the three - all in private Danish collections in 1996 - of which two are cited as unsigned (no. 177: measuring 31×25.5 cm and no. 179: measuring 30×24 cm) and one is cited as signed C. K. 44 (no. 178: measuring 29.7×26.2 cm).

Although the exhibition in Kunstforeningen in 1953 suggests that the painting is no. 179 in the Catalogue Raisonné from 1915. Due to the comment in the exhibition catalogue from 1953 (see above) regarding the inscription Købke Capri, we are confident that the present painting was in the exhibition and sold at Bruun Rasmussen auction 431, 1981 no. 311.

Provenance: K. J. Grønbech, wholesaler. Bruun Rasmussen auction 431, 1981 no. 311, reproduced p. 39. A Danish collection of Golden Age paintings.

Hans Edvard Nørregård-Nielsen refers to the motif in “Christen Købke Italien tur-retur”, p. 182 (in Danish): “The slender, bronze-coloured young boy is the embodiment of the local population that the Golden Age painters were searching for in this part of Italy, along the coast previously inhabited by Greeks. The boy, with his red Phrygian cap, is the aged Greeks' descendant on his way to replace them in doing the day's work along the coast”.

The island Capri was “discovered” by artists and travellers in the beginning of the 1820s at the time when Herculanum and Pompeii were excavated. A great interest in and fascination of the region around Naples, the Amalfi coast and Capri arose.

The Danish heir to the throne Christian Frederik (VIII) and his wife Caroline Amalie visited Capri in 1820. The painter I. C. Dahl stayed there for a longer time. The sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen and the painter Thöming went there in 1828. Petzholdt painted many landscapes from the region and those works inspired Købke to travel to Capri with his friend Constantin Hansen. They spent several months there in 1839.

Købke's enthusiasm for Capri and its people can be seen in the many works - both studies and finished works - of the inhabitants (the young fishing boy for instance) and the landscapes. Even his member piece for the Royal Academy of Fine Arts was a motif from Capri. That one to be sold as lot 51 in this catalogue.