Gadescene i København ved år 1800. Piskebåndsjøden sælger en knipling til en ung pige

About this work

Among the street vendors of Copenhagen there were many Jews who made a living by selling hair ribbons and lace, especially in the area around Højbro Plads. They specifically sold hair ribbons of the kind used to gather up men’s hair at the back of their necks in a so-called whip, and ribbon sellers were characteristic features of Copenhagen street life. The painting was bequeathed to SMK in 1910 together with the painting: Street Scene in Copenhagen Around the Year 1800, subtitled: A Young Girl Buying Vegetables from the Amager Woman. The two paintings share the same dimensions and the same frame. Perhaps they were intended as part of a larger series of typical scenes from city life. They are included among the contemporary series published by the printmaker Gerhard Ludvig Lahde (1765–1833) on the basis of pictures and designs by artists such as a very young Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783–1853) and his friend Johannes Senn (1780–1861). Series such as Copenhagen Costumes, The Lottery Ticket and A Fallen Girl’s Biography. Senn may be the artist behind this piece, or perhaps it was the even lesser-known Peder Faxøe (1761–1840), who did genre scenes very similar to this…