Exhibited: The Nivaagaard Collection, “Venskabsportrætter fra Rom”, 2016, Cat. No. 8, mentioned p. 24, ill. p. 26. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, “Lasting Impressions: Etchings and Drawings by Carl Bloch”, 2018.

Provenance: Circolo Scandinavo / Skandinavisk Forening i Rom (Inv. No. A 8).

With the help of a smaller travel grant from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, landscape painter Claus Anton Kølle stayed in Rome from 1860 to 1861. His initial works from here have a similarity in terms of delicacy to the Danish painters Constantin Hansen's (1804–1880) and Christen Købke's (1810–1848) renderings of similar subjects. Later, he developed a more personal expression, in which the gentle, poetic atmosphere, which is Kølle's main strength as a painter, especially shines through. Kølle was quiet by nature, loyal to his friends, and mild in his judgment of others. During his stay in Rome, he frequented Skandinavisk Forening daily. His helpfulness made him friends, and among them, he could express himself with firmness on artistic matters.