Exhibited: The Nivaagaard Collection, “Venskabsportrætter fra Rom”, 2016, Cat. No. 20, mentioned p. 37, ill. p. 38.

Provenance: Circolo Scandinavo / Skandinavisk Forening i Rom (Inv. No. A 13).

Vilhelm Kyhn began his studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1836. He debuted at Charlottenborg in 1843 and studied perspective drawing with Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783–1853) in 1844. In 1849, he received a travel scholarship from the Academy and travelled in 1850 through the Netherlands, Belgium, and France to Rome, where he arrived in June 1850. It was here that he met Lorenz Frølich, among others, which marked the beginning of a lifelong friendship and an extensive letter correspondence. Their letters bear witness to a warm and heartfelt friendship, exchanging views on art and politics in detail.

Back in Copenhagen, Kyhn carried on some of the “spirit” from Rome and the close friendships among artists in his so-called “Huleakademi” (Cave Academy) in his garden studio on Farimagsgade, Copenhagen. It became a place for gathering among younger artists to exchange artistic views and experiences, and above all, to voice their dissatisfaction with the Academy and its conservative views on art. Kyhn's informal “Academy” served as a kind of precursor to “Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler” (The Free School of Study for Artists), established in 1882 in protest against the Academy's views on art and admission regulations.

Vilhelm Kyhn also drew a portrait of Lorenz Frølich in Rome in 1850/51, and the two drawings are likely to have been done in succession to each other. There is also a small oil sketch after the present drawing from Rome 1850/51. Both Kyhn's drawing and the oil sketch are illustrated in “Lorenz Frølich, Egne optegnelser og breve til og fra hans slægt og venner”, 1921, p. 214 and p. 215.