Exhibited: The Nivaagaard Collection, “Venskabsportrætter fra Rom”, 2016, Cat. No. 25, mentioned p. 44, ill. p. 45.

Provenance: Circolo Scandinavo / Skandinavisk Forening i Rom (Inv. No. A 21).

A few years after graduating from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Peder Severin Krøyer and his good friend and artist colleague Frans Schwartz (1850–1917) went on their first long trip abroad. They travelled to Germany, and in Munich Krøyer met the Norwegian artist Eilif Peterssen. Here, Krøyer and Peterssen painted each other's portraits for the first time.

In 1879, Krøyer and Peterssen met in Italy, where they travelled to several destinations together. In the painting “Breakfast in Sora” (1880) (Nasjonalmuseet, Inv. No. NG.M.01570) Krøyer has painted himself, his artist colleagues Christian Meyer Ross (1843–1905) and Eilif Peterssen and Peterssen's wife Nicoline Peterssen around a lunch table. It was one of Krøyer's first paintings of friends - a genre he practised several times during his artistic career. The three artist colleagues were also in Rome together in 1881, and on the same day Krøyer drew both Peterssen's and Ross' portraits. In Krøyer's portrait of Peterssen, we see the artist with his face turned slightly to the left and with his eyes almost observing Krøyer's short pencil strokes.

Peterssen is also portrayed in Krøyer's painting “At Lunch” (1883) (The Art Museums of Skagen, Inv. No. SKM657), which was painted during a stay, Peterssen had in Skagen. Krøyer also wanted him to be in his famous painting “Hip, Hip, Hurrah!” (1888) (Gothenburg Museum of Art, Inv. No. F 62), but Krøyer was not able to pursuade Peterssen to come to Skagen again. Although Eilif Peterssen did not return to Skagen again until 1905, he was a central figure of the social life among the artists, while he was there. In his autobiographical notes, the painter Michael Ancher (1849–1927) describes in great detail how Peterssen's birthday was celebrated by the members of the artist colony led by Krøyer.