Woman in an Interior

Paper label affixed to verso references Hirschl & Adler, HA 13456D/3

Holsöe’s father, NPC Holsöe was an architect. A student at the Royal Academy of Copenhagen and later at PS Kroyer’s Artists’ Study School, Holsöe formed an alliance with Vilhelm Hammershoi and Peter Holsöe’s brother in law, two other artists.  They each became members of The Free Exhibition, a progressive society set up in 1890 as an alternative space to show their work.

Carl Vilhelm Holsöe’s paintings were known for qualities referred to as “luminous domesticity and meditative calm”, as were set inside sparsely furnished rooms inside Danish homes, including a single, typically female figure.  Holsöe achieved a defined space in these interiors through harmonious colors, subdued light and the careful juxtaposition of objects. Enormously popular throughout Scandinavia and the rest of Europe, he received an honorable mention at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1889 and a medal at the Munich Exhibition of 1891.