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]

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

References