''Amalienborg Square, Copenhagen'' (''Amalienborg Plads'') is an 1896 oil-on-canvas painting by the Danish artist

Vilhelm Hammershøi Vilhelm Hammershøi (), often anglicised as Vilhelm Hammershoi (15 May 186413 February 1916), was a Danish painter. He is known for his poetic, subdued portraits and interiors.Souren Melikian,Hammershoi's decade of brilliance, before banality set ...

in the Statens Museum for Kunst. This painting shows Amalienborg Square, Copenhagen in a hazy setting with full sunlight on the 1768 Neoclassical statue of Frederik V on Horseback, commissioned by the

Asiatic Company The Danish East India Company ( da, Ostindisk Kompagni) refers to two separate Danish-Norwegian chartered companies. The first company operated between 1616 and 1650. The second company existed between 1670 and 1729, however, in 1730 it was re-f ...

and created by the French sculptor

Jacques Saly Jacques François Joseph Saly, also known as Jacques Saly (20 June 1717 – 4 May 1776), French-born sculptor who worked in France, Italy and Malta. He is commonly associated with his time in Denmark he served as Director of the Royal Danis ...

. This statue took 14 years to complete and cost more than Amalienborg's four palatial buildings which surround it, which is perhaps why Hammershøi decided to place it in full sunlight. The lack of any trace of human life in the painting is typical of Hammershøi's work and emphasizes the monumental qualities of the subject. The skewed architectural lines give the painting a sense of space and the horseman seems to be trotting calmly out of the painting, leaving the two-dimensional palace behind him. The trompe l'oeil effect makes the painting seem taller, but it is actually square. Other monumental paintings of architecture by Hammershøi in this period were: File:Hammershøi Old Asiatic Company.jpg, ''The Old Buildings of the Asiatic Company'', 1902 File:Vilhelm Hammershøi - The Buildings of the Asiatic Company, seen from St. Annæ Street - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Buildings of the Asiatic Company, seen from St. Annæ Street'', 1902 File:Hammershøi from the British Museum.jpg, ''British Museum'', 1906 File:The Royal Palace Church in Copenhagen (Vilhelm Hammershøi) - Nationalmuseum - 23216.tif, ''The Royal Palace Church in Copenhagen'', 1910

References

artwork record
on Europeana website {{DEFAULTSORT:Amalienborg Square, Copenhagen 1896 paintings Paintings in the National Gallery of Denmark Paintings by Vilhelm Hammershøi Cityscape paintings 19th-century paintings in Denmark