Soffi and Holger Drachmann
This pastel was a gift from Holger Drachmann’s friend friend and colleague Peder Severin Krøyer (1851-1909) to Drachmanns and his wife on their first wedding anniversary.
The drawing had been made the year before as a preparatory study for one of Krøyer’s masterpieces, Midsummer Eve Bonfire on Skagen’s Beach from 1906, Skagens Museum, in which several artists from Skagen gather around the bonfire together with local children and adults. In this painting, Soffi and Holger Drachmann have a prominent position to the left of the bonfire, because Holger Drachmann towers over the other people in the painting.
In the finished painting, Soffi has put on the jacket that she carries over her arm, and the distinctive blue necklace is hidden. The fashionable cigarette that she has in her hand and the unruly tuft of hair are also absent in the finished work. But the sketch highlights the unique depiction of the moment.
