Portræt af Johan Christopher Hoffmann 1842 - 1902

Vilhelm Kyhn made this portrait of Johan Christopher Hoffmann as an engraving. The print is made in the image of a man who looks out at us in his military uniform, shoulders squared and a slightly tense expression on his face, a man who is the image of Danish bourgeois strength. Kyhn and Hoffmann were contemporaries who occupied different rungs on the Danish social ladder. The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts played a key role in the social networks that connected them. Here, Hoffman, is ennobled by his portrait, a cultural artifact typically reserved for the upper classes. Kyhn was not only a landscape painter but also a keen observer of the society around him. To better understand this print, we can consider the cultural function of portraiture in Denmark at that time, as well as the social role of military service. These are just some of the avenues of enquiry that historians of art use.