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Vilhelm Hammershøi, 'Interior', 1899

Key facts
Full title Interior
Artist Vilhelm Hammershøi
Artist dates 1864 - 1916
Date made 1899
Medium and support Oil on canvas
Dimensions 64.5 × 58.1 cm
Inscription summary Signed
Acquisition credit On loan from Tate: Presented in memory of Leonard Borwick by his friends through the Art Fund 1926
Inventory number L712
Location Room 44
Image copyright On loan from Tate: Presented in memory of Leonard Borwick by his friends through the Art Fund 1926, © 2000 Tate
Collection Main Collection
Interior
Vilhelm Hammershøi

In December 1898 Hammershøi moved into the old merchant house at Strandgade 30, Copenhagen, built in 1636. This painting portrays one of its rooms, and the model is his wife Ida, whom he married in 1891. The table was originally larger and filled most of the foreground, and the figure was added at the end. Pencil underdrawing is visible through the paint layer.

The artist painted the interior of this house more than sixty times, sometimes portraying empty rooms, sometimes including the figure of his wife in a long black dress. She is either viewed in profile or from the back, often reading a letter or a book. In all the interiors a sense of stillness prevails, and they show the influence of 17th-century Dutch painting, particularly that of Johannes Vermeer.

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