The 19in x 2ft 7in (48 x 79cm) canvas shows a night scene on the beach at Skagen in Jutland where Kroyer spent most of his summers and depicts key members of Skagen’s artists’ colony of which he was a leading light.
The painting was purchased by a private Scandinavian collector and the price was just over the upper end of the auctioneers’ estimate of €405,000-540,000.
“It is an impressive and very well deserved hammer price for a masterful painting by one of the truly great figures in the history of Danish art,” said the auctioneers’ head of fine art Julie Arendse Voss.
The auctioneers released the video below shortly after the sale on February 28.
Kroyer was a prime mover in the establishment of the artist’s colony at Skagen, the small village where Danish painters produced a distinctive type of plein air landscape influenced by the empty beaches and clear light.
The 19in x 2ft 7in (48 x 79cm) signed and dated oil canvas was painted in situ on midsummer eve in 1903 as a study for the much larger well known final work of 1906 that is now in the Skagen museum.
The buyer’s premium was 30% premium including VAT.
