Focus on In a Roman Osteria and explore the History.
Carl Bloch was a personal friend of Moritz G. Melchior. He often visited the Melchior family for dinner on Thursdays in their home on the second floor at Højbro Plads 21. Other friends of the family, who would often also attend the Thursday Dinners, included the writer Hans Christian Andersen and the painter Frederik Christian Lund, poet and museum administrator Carl Andersen and representatives of the press such as Dagbladet editor C. St. A. Bille, journalists Robert Watt and P. "Cabiro" Hansen and publisher and editor of Fædrelandet ('The Fatherland') Carl Ploug.Melchior commissioned the painting from Bloch in connection with a journey to Italy. He requested a painting similar to that of Wilhelm Marstrand's Italian Osteria Scene, Girl welcoming a Person entering (1847).The Polish-Danish painter Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann also made a version of the scene and there are at least three variations of that painting. The unframed oil on canvas measures 148.5 by 177.5 centimetres (58.5 by 69.9 in).In 1884, Melchior bequeathed the painting to the Danish National Gallery. It was handed over to the museum following the death of Melchior's daughter Louise in 1935.
Wilhelm Marstrand Carl Bloch canvas Danish National Gallery Højbro Plads 21 Osteria Moritz G. Melchior Frederik Christian Lund Italian Osteria Scene, Girl welcoming a Person entering Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann Fædrelandet Hans Christian Andersen