Portrait of My Wife, the Painter Anna Ancher

Portrait of My Wife, the Painter Anna Archer is an 1884 painting by Michael Ancher, now in the Hirschsprung Collection.^[1]

She is shown looking through an open door, with a wedding ring on her right hand and her husband's dog looking at Anna's pregnancy bump - the study for the work was painted in summer 1883^[2] and she gave birth to their daughter Helga that August. One of P.S. Krøyer's first pastel drawings of painters at work (which became a major feature of his oeuvre) was Michael Ancher Painting the Portrait of Anna, Standing at the Door, showing Ancher producing the final version of Portrait.^[3] It was exhibited in Copenhagen in 1884, with the depiction of pregnancy causing some controversy, though the theme of the artist's wife soon became popular among other Danish painters.^[4]

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  The 1883 study for the work (Michael og Anna Anchers Hus
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  Krøyer's Michael Ancher Painting the Portrait of Anna, Standing at the Door (Anchers Hus)
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  Harald Slott-Møller, My Wife, 1887, Fuglsang Kunstmuseum
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  P.S. Krøyer, Summer Evening at Skagen. The Artist's Wife on the Beach with a Dog, 1892, Skagens Museum
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  L.A. Ring, At the Garden Door. The Artist's Wife, 1897, Statens Museum for Kunst