Sophie Købke (later Sophie Krohn, 1807–1853), the Artist's Sister, in the Hall at Kastellet

The Artist: One of eleven siblings, Christen Købke was the son of Peter Berend Købke (1771–1843) and his wife Cecilie Margrethe Petersen (1778–1867). Peter supported his large family as a baker; following a government appointment in 1818 or 1819, they lived at the Kastellet, Copenhagen’s seventeenth-century defensive fortress complex. The Napoleonic Wars devasted Copenhagen, and in the period of rebuilding that ensued, a middle-class culture of restrained refinement flourished. Twelve-year-old Christen began drawing lessons under Christian August Lorentzen (1749–1828) and, after his death, spent four years studying with Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783–1853), director of the Royal Danish Academy of Art. Part of a generation of talented young painters, Købke was one of Eckersberg’s most promising pupils. He exhibited regularly at the Academy and in 1838 traveled via Germany to Italy, returning to Denmark in 1840. From that point on his success was measured. Owing to his early death from pneumonia in 1848, Købke’s output was limited. His oeuvre consists of some two hundred paintings, primarily portraits and landscapes, that epitomize the forthright simplicity, clean lines, and crisp light of the Danish Golden Age of painting.

The Sitter: This charming, informal portrait depicts the artist’s sister Sophie Susanne Dorothea Købke, who was born on May 3, 1807, in Copenhagen, and died there at the age of forty-six on July 15, 1853. Sophie married Frederik Christopher Krohn (1806–1883), a Danish sculptor and medalist, on May 3, 1835. They had six children, Pietro Købke Krohn (1840–1905), Johan Jacob Krohn (1841–1925), Herman Freund Krohn (1843–1877), Mario Krohn (1846–1872), Sophie Christine Cecilie Krohn (1847–1916), and Frits Sophus Krohn (1849–1850).

The family was tight-knit. After the deaths of Christen Købke in 1848 and his widow, Susanne Cecilie Købke (1810–1849), Sophie and Frederik adopted their children, Hans Peter Carl Købke and Juliane Emilie Købke. Later, after Sophie’s death in 1853, Frederik married Susanne Cecilie’s sister, Emilie (1812–1880).[1]

The Painting: Painted in 1830, Sophie is shown standing full-length, arms crossed, leaning with her left elbow and right hand on the edge of a deep windowsill. She wears a high-waisted black dress with puffed short sleeves. A beaded (pearl?) necklace and earrings adorn her head of elaborate blond curls. The room is furnished in the Biedermeier taste and illuminated softly from the right, by light entering through the window. In the corner behind Sophie a guitar rests on a sofa, and a simple wooden table is covered by a green tablecloth. Before her is a highly polished low chest of drawers supporting a potted plant. The carpet, in a blue-gray that matches the sofa upholstery, is edged by a geometric pattern woven in orange. The setting is the Kastellet’s parlor, or hall. Sophie and the space she occupies exemplify the casual yet eminent respectability of bourgeois life in Copenhagen; its sober yet warm sensibility is characteristic of Købke.

The painting served a dual function: it is both an independent portrait and the modello for the considerably larger likeness of another sibling, Conradine Feilberg, née Købke, in the Parlor of the Citadel, about 1830–32.[2] Købke did not paint many full-length portraits, yet despite the closeness in composition, Sophie is rather more painterly than Conradine, and Sophie’s gaze meets the painter/viewer’s, while Conradine is more slickly finished and looks away. Købke generally preferred the direct gaze, as evinced by the majority of his portraits, for example the portrait of another sibling, Valdemar Hjartvar Købke (The Met 1990.233).

Asher Ethan Miller 2025

[1] See Copenhagen 1996, pp. 98–99.
[2] Private collection (Nørregård-Nielsen 2006, p. 818, no. 45, ill. p. 153).

the sitter, the artist's sister Sophie Susanne Dorothea Købke (Fru Frederik Christopher Krohn from 1835), Sakskøbing (until d. 1853); her widower, Frederik Christopher Krohn, Sakskøbing (1853–d. 1883); their daughter, Sophie Christine Cecilie Krohn, Sakskøbing (1883–d. 1916); by descent in the Købke family to Fru Knud Brandt (Gerda Juel Holm), Copenhagen (in 1945); Ernest V. Brandt, Denmark (in 1953); private collection, Denmark (until 2002; sale, Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, December 2, 2002, no. 1171, as "Sophie Krohn, kunstnerens soster stående ved vinduet i familiens hjem på kastellet," bought in); Casimiro Porro, Milan (until d. 2023; sale, “Dell’antico al moderno: opera da una storica collezione Milanese,” Pandolfini Casa d’Aste, Milan, November 8, 2023, no. 44, for €35,280 [$37,801], to Porro); Porro family collection, Milan (from 2023; sold to Benappi); [Benappi Fine Art, London, until 2025; sold at TEFAF, Maastricht to The Met]

Copenhagen. Kunstforeningen. "Malerier og Studier af Christen Schiellerup Købke f. 26 Mai 1810, d. 7 Febr. 1848," Spring 1884, no. 32 (as "En ung Dame staar i en Vinduesfordybning" [A Young Lady Stands in a Window Recess], 1832–33, lent by Miss S. Krohn).

Copenhagen. Kunstforeningen. "Fortegnelse over Christen Købkes Malerier," 1912, no. 44 (as "Fru Conradine Feilberg, F. Købke," 1832, lent by Frk. S. Krohn).

Copenhagen. Kunstforeningen. "Christen Købke," January 31–February 28, 1953, no. 28 (as "Conradine Feilberg, f. Købke, studie til. nr. 29, Købkes søster" [Conradine Feilberg, née Købke, study for no. 29, Købke's sister], lent by the painter E[rnest]. V. Brandt).

Copenhagen. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. "Købke og Kastellet: Et dansk guldaldermotiv," June 27–August 30, 1981, no. 11 (as "Studie til portræt af Conradine Feilberg" [Study for the portrait of Conradine Feilberg], 1832, lent by a private collection).

Copenhagen. Statens Museum for Kunst. "Christen Købke 1810–1848," February 10–May 5, 1996, no. 44 (as "Portrait of Sophie Krohn, née Købke, in the Parlour of the Citadel," lent by a private collection).

Katalog over Malerier og Studier af Christen Schiellerup Købke, f. 26 Mai 1810, d. 7 Febr. 1848. Exh. cat., Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen. Copenhagen, 1884, p. 6, no. 32, compares it to Købke's portrait of his sister Konradine Feilberg in a similar pose then in the collection of Mr. Pastor F. Feilberg.

Emil Hannover. Maleren Christen Købke en studie i Dansk Kunsthistorie. Copenhagen, 1893, pp. 54, 135, no. 45, calls it "Portræt af Fru Conradine Feilberg, f. Købke. Hel Figur, Staaende ved en Vinduesfordybning” (Portrait of Mrs. Conradine Feilberg, née Købke. Full Figure, Standing at a Window Recess); states that it is signed and dated on the back “C. Købke 1832”; notes that it was no. 32 in the catalogue for Copenhagen 1884; describes it as “Skizze til næstfølgende” (Sketch for the next work), which is no. 46, "Portræt af Fru Conradine Feilberg, f. Købke" (Portrait of Mrs. Conradine Feilberg); locates it in the collection of Frk. S. Krohn, Saxkøbing.

Fortegnelse over Christen Købkes Malerier. Exh. cat., Kunstforeningen. Copenhagen, 1912, p. 9, no. 44, dates it 1832; calls it a study for the following work (no. 45), "Fru Conradine Feilberg, F. Købke" in the collection of Hr. Pastor, Dr. phil. H. F. Feilberg.

Mario Krohn. Maleren Christen Købkes Arbejder. Copenhagen, 1915, p. 10, no. 44, ill. p. 28, as "Studie til Nr. 45. C. Købke" (Study for no. 45, C[onradine Feilberg, née] Købke); identifies its owner as Frk. S. Krohn; states that it is signed and dated "C. Købke 1832"; notes that the artist's sister Sophie Krohn modeled for the picture in the hall of the Kastellet (Copenhagen's citadel, where the Købke family lived).

Dorde Hansen in "Fru Gerda Brandt, København." Kunst I Privat Eje. Ed. V. Winkel & Magnussen. Copenhagen, 1945, vol. 2, p. 249, describes it as "den lille Portrætstudie af Fru Conradine Fejlberg"; identifies it as Krohn 1915, no. 44, and notes that it is one of the artist's few full-length portraits.

Ide Løppenthin. Christen Købke. Exh. cat., Kunstforeningen. Copenhagen, 1953, unpaginated, no. 28.

Hans Edvard Nørregård-Nielsen in Købke og Kastellet: Et dansk guldaldermotiv. Exh. cat., Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Copenhagen, 1981, pp. 52, 54, fig. 16 (color), notes that it was painted at the same time as a portrait of his older brother, pastor Carl Adolph Købke, dated June 9, 1832 (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen); states that the painter's sister Sophie poses in the family living room at Kastellet as a model for the artist's portrait of their sister Conradine.

Lise Funder in Købke og Kastellet: Et dansk guldaldermotiv. Exh. cat., Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Copenhagen, 1981, p. 93, no. 11, provides provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography for the painting.

Sanford Schwartz. Christen Købke. New York, 1992, colorpl. 12, as "Study for the Portrait of Conradine Feilberg" in a private collection, Denmark; dates it 1832.

Christen Købke, 1810–1848. Ed. Hans Edvard Nørregård-Nielsen and Kasper Monrad. Exh. cat., Statens Museum for Kunst. Copenhagen, 1996, p. 353, no. 44, fig. 38 (color), as "Portrait of Sophie Krohn, née Købke, in the Parlour of the Citadel"; describe it as a "study of a portrait of Conradine Feilberg, née Købke, the artist's sister" (no. 45 in the same catalogue); dates it 1832 in the catalogue and about 1830 in the publication's subsequent list of errata.

Hans Edvard Nørregård-Nielsen. "'Just Imagine, Mother Dear': Christen Købke's Sister in Rome." The Golden Age Revisited: Art and Culture in Denmark, 1800–1850. Ed. Bente Scavenius. Copenhagen, 1996, pp. 113, 188, ill. (color), as "Sophie Købke" in a private collection; notes that it is the only painted portrait of Sophie by Købke; illustrates an undated drawn likeness of her in profile, later reproduced in the lithograph "Three Portraits" (erroneously identified as an etching), which he dates to 1834; mentions another drawing of her made in Rome around New Year 1839.

Hans Edvard Nørregård-Nielsen. Christen Købke: Omkring Kastellet. Copenhagen, 1996, vol. 1, fig. 98 (color); vol. 3, pp. 247–48, no. 44, as "Sophie Krohn, født Købke, i salen på Kastellet" (Sophie Krohn, born Købke, in the hall at Kastellet), a study for the portrait of Conradine Feilberg, née Købke; dates it about 1830 in the catalogue but 1832 in the caption; locates it in a private collection; describes inscriptions on back.

Hans Edvard Nørregård-Nielsen. Christen Købke. Copenhagen, 2006, pp. 817–18, no. 44, fig. 98 (color), as “Sophie Krohn, født Købke, i salen på Kastellet” in a private collection; dates it about 1830 in the catalogue and 1832 in the caption; repeats inscriptions from Nørregård-Nielsen 1996, and repeats its description as a study for a portrait of Conradine Feilberg, no. 45 in the same catalogue.

Christen Købke: Portrait of Sophie, The Artist's Sister. Exh. brochure, Benappi Fine Art. [London], 2025, unpaginated, ill. (color, overall and details), as "Portrait of Sophie Krohn (née Købke), the artist's sister, in the hall at Kastellet"; dates it about 1830; provides provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography for the painting; notes that the painting served two purposes, a portrait of a beloved sister and a promotion for the ambitious artist as a society portrait painter.