The final version of the painting “Five portraits” from 1901–1902 is one of Vilhelm Hammershøi's most famous works and at the same time his largest and most monumental piece – measuring 190×340 centimetres. It depicts five important people in Hammershøi's circle of friends: the architect and ornamental artist Thorvald Bindesbøll (1846–1908), his brother Svend Hammershøi (1873–1948), the art historian Karl Madsen (1855–1938), the painter Jens Ferdinand Willumsen (1863–1958) and on the far right the painter Carl Holsøe. They are all sitting around a table. It is a very monumental, dark and mysterious group portrait with references to art history such as the Dutch group portraits from the 17th century and to various older depictions of “The Last Supper”.

Carl Holsøe was Hammershøi's close friend, fellow student and painter colleague. Their friendship was established while they both studied under Peder Severin Krøyer (1851–1909) at Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler (The Free School of Study for Artists) during the 1880s. Holsøe was greatly inspired by Hammershøi and also painted interiors - often with women who had their backs turned to the viewer. When Hammershøi died in 1916, Carl Holsøe was one of several close friends and artists who were chosen as pallbearers at Hammershøi’s funeral.

The present portrait is most likely one of the last studies for “Five Portraits” since Holsøe's appearance here is very similar to the one he has in the final painting. The right side of his face is brightly lit, and the other side is almost shrouded in darkness – an example of the lighting magic of the finished painting, as Vad describes it, where two tall candles on the table illuminate Holsøe's face from the right side. The slightly offset tilt of the portrait might have seemed a little strange if it were just a plain symmetrical “en face” portrait, but here it makes perfect sense when one knows that it is a man sitting, almost provocatively informal, reclined in his chair with his hands in his pockets and his legs placed on a chair so that his feet stretch out directly towards the viewer. This testifies to the complex composition of the final painting, which Vad, among other things, characterizes as follows: “The figures do not fall into place within the static harmony of the symmetry, which is also not replaced by any rule concerning the central perspective. In front of the parallel-plane wall – underlined by Willumsen's frontality – a table and figures are arranged according to a kind of inverted perspective: the space opens wide in front of the viewer as a projection of divergent lines. First and foremost, illustrated by Holsøe's reclined body on the right side of the painting and by the table’s edge” (p. 223). A magical use of light and an asymmetry is thus also present in this portrait of Hammershøi's close friend and colleague, Carl Holsøe.

The present work is thus not just a study, but a small work of art in itself. A portrait, in which Hammershøi has depicted his good friend up close, with his characteristic bald head, double chin, full lips and a firm gaze towards the viewer, the way only Hammershøi can do it with his greyscale palette, small quick brushstrokes, the slightly asymmetric composition and not least his use of the light.