While the early work of Danish artist J.F. Willumsen (1863 - 1958) has been canonized as an important contribution to early Danish moder nism, his late period from the 1930s and forth has to a large extent been ignored or rejected. The aim of this dissertation is to reassess this period and examine the reasoning behind the dismissal as well as the possibilities of understanding it in new wa ys today. As such , the analyses are intrinsically related to the modernist criteria that have been decisive for positioning the artistic expressions of the 20 th century. At the same time, the dissertation approaches Willumsen’s late works from a contemporary standpoint that incorporates the post - history of the works in order to reevaluate their meaning. Rather than to confine the interpretation to a question of influences and causal relationships, the dissertation follows in the footsteps of the eclecticism inherent in Willumsen’s art and includes various references, sources, and contex ts in the reading of the works. The writing of the dissertation and the PhD project as a whole has taken place in close collaboration with the J .F. Willumsen Museum in Frederikssund. The New Carlsberg Foundation through a scholarship given to the museum has funded it, and it has been co - funded by the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen.