Georg Brandes at the University in Copenhagen, 1889

  • Harald Slott-Møller, Danish, 1864-1937

Oil on canvas

  • Unframed: 36 1/4 × 31 7/8 inches (92.1 × 81 cm)
  • 41 3/8 × 37 × 2 1/8 inches (105.1 × 94 × 5.4 cm)

Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund

1991.1

On View

  • Modern N200

Department

European Modern Art to 1970

The late nineteenth century saw the rapid growth and expansion of universities and colleges in Europe and America. Brandes was a charismatic, popular professor in Copenhagen, giving controversial lectures on the contemporary symbolist movement in literature. Internationally famous, he was invited to lecture at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in the 1890s. The portrait shows Brandes elevated on his podium under bright lights with a dramatically simple realism.

Signed, lower left: Harald Slott-Moller

March 20, 1969, purchased by Rasmussen (Copenhagen, Denmark) lot 187

until 1990, private collection (Europe)

November 29, 1990, sold by (Christie's, London, England) lot 1

1991-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Harald Slott-Møller, Georg Brandes at the University in Copenhagen, 1889, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, 1991.1.