For examination, please contact the staff in Lyngby.

Exhibited: The Nivaagaard Collection, “Venskabsportrætter fra Rom”, 2016, Cat. No. 5, mentioned p. 22, ill. p. 22. 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 II 1).

The popular, spiritual, and cultural community in Scandinavia intrigued the teacher and author Martin Hammerich. The seed of his involvement in the Scandinavian movement was planted during his stay in Rome. He visited the city during the winter of 1838–1839 and noted in his diary: “I met Const. Hansen, Jerichau, and the other Danish artists in the osterias and went on excursions with them, also in the surrounding areas; on Christmas Eve, we joined the Swedes and Norwegians, which has since become a tradition.”

Hammerich's second stay in Rome was brief, lasting from November 20, 1861, to January 8, 1862, this time accompanied by his wife Anna Mathea Aagaard (1820–1904) and their eldest daughter Marie. At the restaurant Quattro Nazioni, the Hammerich family met daily with their Nordic countrymen. When Christmas Eve was celebrated at Skandinavisk Forening in 1861, Hammerich proposed a toast to the North. It was only five days after this lively evening that Bloch drew the present portrait of Hammerich.