786/​89

Vilhelm Hammershøi (b. Copenhagen 1864, d. s.p. 1916)

A portrait of the artist's sister Anna Hammershøi.Half-lenght portrait. Half profile to the left. Artificial light. Eyes turned downwards. 1886. Unsigned. Oil on canvas. 37×28 cm.

Sophus Michaëlis and Alfred Bramsen, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of Vilhelm Hammershøi no. 44. Exhibited: Charlottenborg 1886 no. 136 with the title “Dameportrait” (A portrait of a lady). Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm “Nyare Dansk Konst”, 1919 no. 414. On the reverse a stamp from the exhibition at Kunstforeningen in Copenhagen 1955, the painting is not represented in the catalogue. Provenance: The artist's sister Anna Hammershøi (1918). The artist's brother Svend Hammershøi (1919). The Henriques family until now. They received the painting from Svend Hammershøi. The famous interior paintings by Hammershøi show the close surroundings of the changing Copenhagen homes of Vilhelm and Ida Hammersøi. When painting portraits he also preferred picking his models among his closest relatives. In his own words: “I don't like to paint portraits commissioned by strangers, I prefer to know people very well in order to paint them”. (Poul Vad, “Hammershøi”, 2003 p. 102). This unique portrait is of his little sister Anna looking delicate and withdrawn - almost like an angel. It is easy to tell, that Hammershøi put a lot of tenderness into painting Anna, who appears in many of his works. The way Anna looks in the small portrait here reminds one of the larger painting of her from the year before (1885). With that painting Hammershøi made his first appearance at Charlottenborg, and it can nowadays be seen at The Hirschsprung Collection in Copenhagen.

Additional Remarks

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Auction

Selected paintings, 22 April 2008

Category
Estimate

300,000 DKK

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Price realised

900,000 DKK