Peder Severin Krøyer Painting by Paul Meijering

Realistic painting ( 90 x 90 cm) in acrylic painted by artist Paul Meijering of Peder Severin Krøyer, (23 July 1851 - 21 November 1909) the Norwegian-born painter who assumed Danish nationality in 1889. He belonged to the Skagenschilders.

Krøyer's unmarried mother Ellen Cecilie Gjesdal was deemed unfit to raise her child, so he grew up in Copenhagen with her sister Bertha Cecilie Gjesdal. She was married to Danish zoologist Henrik Nikolai Krøyer, whose surname he took. He showed talent for drawing and painting at an early age, and after returning to Denmark, Krøyer became a much sought-after portrait painter in Copenhagen. In addition, he rented a house in Skagen on the northern tip of Jutland, where he became part of the local artists' colony including the writers Holger Drachmann, Georg Brandes and Henrik Pontoppidan and the Skagen painters including Martinus Rørbye, Karl Madsen, Viggo Johansen and married couple Michael and Anna Ancher.

Krøyer regularly stayed in Copenhagen during the winters and spent the summers painting in Skagen. In 1891, his young wife Marie Krøyer geb. Triepcke also came to live in Skagen. She frequently posed for him. In 1895, their daughter Vibeke was born.

After 1900, Krøyer suffered from many psychological problems. He was manic depressive. When Marie was expecting a child by Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén in 1905, it led to a divorce. He died four years later, at the age of 58, after a difficult final period that he had spent partly in psychiatric institutions.