Verso a dedication (In Danish): For Ebba Brodersen, Skagen.

Provenance: Bruun Rasmussen auction 1833, 2018 no. 27.

Helga Ancher was the daughter of Anna and Michael Ancher (1859–1935; 1849–1927) and she was introduced to some of the other Skagen painters through her parents. It was therefore obvious for her to become an artist herself.

She was taught by her parents from an early age, before graduating from Charlotte Sode (1859–1931) and Julie Mehldahl's (1861–1946) Tegneskole for Kvinder (Drawing School for Women). She then attended The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts' Art School for Women 1901–1904, where she was taught by the painters Valdemar Irminger (1850–1938) and Viggo Johansen (1851–1935). She then travelled to Paris to further her studies with Lucien Simon (1861–1945) in Paris in 1909–10. She also travelled to Berlin and Dresden in 1900, and to Italy several times in 1906 and 1924.

Helga Ancher made her debut at Charlottenborg in 1911 and exhibited here continuously until 1938 and again in 1944. She also exhibited at Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling (The Artists‘ Autumn Exhibition) in 1913, at Kvindelige Kunstneres retrospektive Udstilling (The Women Artists’ Retrospective Exhibition) in 1920 and was represented at Kvindelige Kunstneres Samfund (The Society of Women Artists) in 1930 and several other exhibitions, including solo exhibitions.

In her oil studies, like her mother Anna Ancher, she worked with a partial dissolution of the subject with light and colour as the primary focus. Among her favourite subjects were intimate Skagen scenes and the interiors of Brøndum's hotel, which is also the present work at auction.