This article interprets the disrupted perspectives in Hanna Hirsch-Pauli's large scale painting Vanner (Friends) from 1900-1907. When Hirsch-Pauli turns to her living room in 1900 as a setting for her painting several agents are at play. The scene is staged in the Pauli's living room, where friends have gathered around Ellen Key, and the home is presented as a place for intellectual debate. It is a scene deeply embedded in the surrounding cultural and political life. The article looks into the importance of the home as a scene both within the picture and in society at large at the turn of the twentieth century. The article also argues that the setting in the home and the painting's twarthed compositions are related to the formation of identity. By identifying different types of perspectives such as the artist's presence in the image, or the direction of the gazes, certain aspects of otherness are discussed. Furthermore, through the social, historical and compositional setting of this painting some aspects of Hanna Hirsch-Pauli's disrupted perspectives are uncovered.