Portrait of Miss Holm (full length)

There is no photograph of this portrait, but as the title implies, it is a full-length portrait of Knuthild Holm (1883–1939). The artist and model met in Svanøy around 1904, and they formed a close friendship and partnership over the subsequent years. After Holm married Alexander Breyholtz (1880–1969) in 1909, she sold several paintings for Astrup in Bergen. The Breyholtz family had several paintings by Astrup in its own possession, including Marsh Marigolds and Double Rainbow (K131) and this full-length portrait.

According to Breyholtz’s descendants, the family’s Astrup collection, with the exception of Portrait of Knuthild Holm (K17), was sold after a bankruptcy towards the end of the 1920s. It is unclear who bought the full-length portrait, but an article in the newspaper Firda tells about the sensation it caused when it appeared at an art dealer in Bergen in 1944: “The painting, which is a full-length portrait, is very interesting on account both of its style and how well it captures the essence of the model”. The newspaper reported that an art collector in Bergen quickly snapped up the painting. The collector was not named, nor was the owner mentioned in the catalogues for the Astrup exhibitions in 1955 and 1956, where the painting was exhibited. According to the catalogues, the portrait measures 105 x 70 cm, but after the exhibition in Stockholm in 1956, its provenance is unknown.