![Kristian Zahrtmann - Death of Queen Sophie Amalie [1882] by Gandalf's Gallery](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5518/12301683895_a430c4623c.jpg)
Surrounded by silverware and magnificent silks, the dowager queen Sophie Amalie (1628-1685) breathes her last. A grotesque figure whose status and wealth cannot deliver her from a violent and painful death by asphyxiation.
As an artist, the splendour-loving Zahrtmann (1843 - 1917) became the great renewer of historical painting. Over the years the colours became more intense and the interpretations more private, making them more bizarre in the eyes of his contemporaries. In his late figure compositions, he brought together exceptional human beings and obvious homoerotic fascinations in a high-tension exchange between life and work.
[National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen - Oil on canvas]