Provenance: Kunsthallen auction 322, 1977 no. 53.

The motif of an elderly woman was something Hammershøi worked with in his youth years, and he made several studies and finished paintings. In 1885, he painted, among other things, “En gammel kone” (An old woman), which depicts an elderly woman in a black dress and white bonnet standing by a window, and which is today in the Hirschsprung Collection. The Hirschsprung Collection also contains “En gammel kone” (An old woman) from 1886, which depicts an elderly woman in a black dress and white bonnet sitting in an empty interior, and which was the first painting by Hammershøi that Heinrich Hirschsprung bought for his collection. In 1886, he also worked with the motif in the form of a portrait of his mother, who is depicted sitting in profile, dressed in black and with a bonnet on her head. The present painting must be assumed to have been painted during this period.