Portrait of Marie Triepcke

Michael Ancher's 'Portrait of Marie Triepcke' (1889) depicts the Danish painter Marie Triepcke Krøyer — the woman who in this year became the wife of Peder Severin Krøyer, Michael Ancher's closest friend and colleague in the Skagen colony. Marie Triepcke was herself an artist, trained in Paris and Munich, and her arrival in the Skagen community brought a new figure into the intimate social world that the Anchers and Krøyer had built. Ancher's portrait of her on the eve of or shortly after her marriage to Krøyer captures a significant moment in Skagen's social history.

Michael Ancher renders Marie Triepcke with his characteristic directness and psychological observation — the young woman who would become a central figure in the Skagen community depicted with the same individual attention he gave to the fishermen and women of the village. His handling of the light on her face and the portrait's composition reflect his mature portrait practice. The specific character of her face and expression are rendered with the honesty he brought to all his portrait subjects.