For examination, please contact the staff in Lyngby.

Exhibited: The Nivaagaard Collection, “Venskabsportrætter fra Rom”, 2016, Cat. No. 7, mentioned p. 24, ill. p. 25. 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 3).

The Swedish sculptor Frithiof Kjellberg shared a studio with the Danish sculptor Lauritz Prior (1840–1879) and the Finnish sculptor Walter Runeberg (1838–1920) in Rome. Later, the Norwegian sculptor Brynjulf Bergslien (1830–1898) moved in. The studio was known as “Det Skandinaviske Akademi” (The Scandinavian Academy) and in the Norwegian art historian Lorentz Dietrichson's (1834–1917) memoir “Svundne Tider” (1896), there is a mention of a particularly friendly artistic community among the four sculptors. It is recounted how they left the studio after work to, in Dietrichson's words, enjoy the evening at one of the local osterias. The enthusiasm for the Nordic community is evident in the Swedish sculptor's letter home to the architect and friend Albert Theodor Gellerstedt (1836–1914) in 1863: “In the other Scandinavians here, you will find good comrades and intelligent young men.”