Focus on this artwork and explain the Exhibition history.
The painting has been exhibited several times and catalogued: Eckersberg in 1895 (catalogue number 293), Hirschsprung 1902 (969) and London 1907 (166). It was part of the exhibition The Naked Golden Age which was shown at the Hirschsprung Collection from 8 September to 27 November 1994.
Here it was exhibited with the accompanying sketch and L.A. Smith's contemporaneous painting.
The preface of the exhibition catalogue mentions that the seeds for the exhibition lay in questions that arose from the uncertainty of the dating and the absence of Eckersberg's signature.
In 2013, the painting, along with 69 other works from the Hirschsprung Collection, was lent to the Hamburger Kunsthalle
for the exhibition Denmark's Breakthrough to Modernism: The Hirschsprung Collection from Eckersberg to Hammershøi. It was not part of the National Gallery of Denmark's large Eckersberg exhibition in 2015, Eckersberg – A Beautiful Lie, but was, however, reproduced and analysed in the exhibition's accompanying book.
In certain written works the painting is dated to about 1837. The reason is apparently that Emil Hannover in his book The Painter C. W. Eckersberg: A Study in Danish Art History, wrote about the painting: "Seems to have been painted around the time of the female model studies (...) belonging to the Academy of Art." Recent authoritative works from the Hirschsprung Collection indicate, however, the year 1841. The correction came about after examination of Eckersberg's diaries and material from the Academy's archives.His student Ludvig August Smith's contemporaneous painting Female Model in Front of a Mirror is in the Loeb Danish Art Collection. Eckersberg's study in pencil and watercolour is in the National Gallery in Oslo, while the drawing from 1850 with the female model standing in Florentine's posture has been in private ownership since it was catalogued for the exhibition The Naked Golden Age.
Ludvig August Smith National Gallery Hirschsprung Collection National Gallery of Denmark The Hirschsprung Collection Hamburger Kunsthalle