Jens Ferdinand Willumsen (1863–1958)
Boy Standing on one Leg while stripping off his Stocking, 1902
Watercolor on paper

48.3 × 41.8 cm

Inventory number B 455

Over an eight-year period, from 1902 to 1910, J.F. Willumsen worked on a large oil painting of bathing children on a sun-drenched beach, Sun and Youth.¹ His sources of inspiration and extensive work process are richly documented in letters, notebooks, photographs etc. Furthermore, he created hundreds of studies and preliminary works, mainly while travelling around Europe.

Boy Standing on Leg while stripping off his Stocking is one such study, done in April–May 1902, where Willumsen was in Amalfi. The visit constituted his first encounter with the Italian coastline and its wide beaches, and he was thrilled by the blue sea and the strong sunlight. The bathing boys also caught Willumsen’s attention, so it is hardly surprising that it was here he created his first studies for Sun and Youth.

The watercolour depicts a boy taking off his sock. Despite the naturalistic style and defining contours, the boy’s appearance and pose are striking. For one thing, his upper body seems surprisingly large and muscular considering the boy’s young face. The very fact that the boy is wearing a sock at all is in itself peculiar. It is not inconceivable that Willumsen staged the scene, specifically wishing to work with a body awash in strong sunlight.

The boy in this watercolour does not appear in Sun and Youth, even though Willumsen also did other, later studies and photographs of boys on the beach wearing socks.²

Published in

Willumsen udstillingen, arrangeret af Den frie Udstilling i Anledningen af Kunstnerens 60-Aars Fødselsdag, København 1923, 2. ed., cat.no. 175; .
Erik Zahle: ”Billedkunst” in C.L. Davids Samling. Nogle Studier, [1], København 1948, p. 208;
Roald Nasgaard: Willumsen and symbolist art 1888-1910, Diss. New York University1973, printed 1996, fig. 155, p. 314;
Leila Krogh in Kjeld von Folsach and Nana Lund (eds.): Dansk kunst i Davids Samling – fra Philipsen til Saxbo, København 1995, cat.no. 21, pp. 82-83;
Kristian Hvidt: Kunst og kapital. Portræt af C.L. David og hans verden, København 2008, p. 164;
Mette Bøgh Jensen and Annette Johansen (eds.): I bølgen blå. Willumsen og de badende børn, Willumsens Museum, Frederikssund 2016, cat.no. 12, p. 111;