''In a Roman Osteria'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Danish painter

Carl Bloch Carl Heinrich Bloch (; 23 May 1834 – 22 February 1890) was a Danish painter. Early life and education Bloch was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and studied there at the Royal Danish Academy of Art (''Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi'') un ...

. It was painted in 1866. One of Bloch's better-known genre scenes, the painting was commissioned by the merchant Moritz G. Melchior, Bloch's friend and major supporter who is included in the background of the painting.

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 Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fai ...

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 . 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.

Description

The setting is in the interior of a Roman osteria. In the forefront, there is a table with three customers: a young man is facing two young women. The one on the left of the man wears a headscarf in the typical garb of married Roman women at the time. The man is seen turning toward the onlooker with an angry expression, whereas the woman at his left is looking with a smiling one, and the (presumably slightly older) other woman looks amused in the same direction. A cat sits to the left of the young woman, silently judging the onlooker. The painter depicted himself in the background, sitting at a table talking with two friends; his back is turned to the viewer.

In popular culture

In April 2018,

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

Greg James Gregory James Alan Milward (born 17 December 1985) is an English broadcaster and author. He has been a presenter on BBC Radio 1 since 2007, hosting shows including his old drive-time show and the station's flagship breakfast show. Since 201 ...

led a real-life recreation of the painting after his listeners discovered that he looked like the man in the painting. It was called the 'Radio 1 Paint-A-Long' and also included two listeners, Miriam and Harriet, who took the places of the women featured.

References

External links

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Zoomable version
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808113736/https://www.zoomo.ca/image/INq , date=2017-08-08 1866 paintings Paintings by Carl Bloch Cats in art Paintings in the National Gallery of Denmark by Danish artists Food and drink paintings