An Artist's Gathering

Additional texteExhibition text: The guests at Viggo Johansen’s house included the artist Vilhelm Hammershøi. This scene is similar to the one in P.S. Krøyer’s famous painting Hipp Hipp Hurrah from 1888 which also portrays a social gathering of artists, one of whom is Johansen, raising his glass in a toast. Krøyer’s dinner is outdoors. Johansen’s dinner is set indoors, in a suggestive dusky light. He is hosting a new generation of artists, several of which had a predilection for lyrical portrayals of domestic scenes. Unlike in the painting by Hanna Pauli, there are almost only men gathered round the table in this picture. Although Viggo Johansen often painted women and interiors, many of those works seem to have been forgotten by posterity. Some of these paintings are shown in the exhibition.