Viggo Johansen

Peder Severin Krøyer's 1887 portrait of Viggo Johansen — the Danish genre and family life painter who was among the most beloved of the Skagen colony's members — adds another significant figure to Krøyer's collective portrait of the community. Johansen was married to Martha Møller and their domestic life at Skagen, including their children, became the subject of some of his most admired work. His friendship with Krøyer was close and sustained; the portrait documents the bond between two of the colony's most significant painters at the peak of their shared creative years.

Krøyer paints his close friend with the particular warmth and directness that characterizes portraits of intimate associates. His technique is assured and personal — the painter documenting someone he knows deeply, achieving character through accumulated observation rather than a single sitting's formality. The palette is warm, the modeling of Johansen's face careful and specific, capturing the particular quality of Danish masculine character within the specific light conditions of the Skagen environment.