''Interior with an Easel, Bredgade 25'' () is an

oil-on-canvas Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or copper for several centuries. ...

painted by 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. In 1905, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote of the artist, "Hammershøi is no ...

in 1912. Acquired by the

Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthies ...

, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, in 2018. The painting depicts the artist's apartment at

Bredgade Bredgade (literal translation, lit. "Broad Street") is one of the most prominent streets in Copenhagen, Denmark. Running in a straight line from Kongens Nytorv for just under one kilometre to the intersection of Esplanaden, Copenhagen, Esplanaden ...

25 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, which was his address up to his death in 1916.

Description

Hammershøi is renowned for his sense of minimalism and his color palettes which consist of muted neutral colors, which consist of greys, desaturated yellows, greens, etc. His minimalism is also a major component of

Scandinavian design Scandinavian design is a design movement characterized by simplicity, minimalism and functionality that emerged in the early 20th century, and subsequently flourished in the 1950s throughout the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sw ...

, and many of his works is representative to this aesthetic, in addition to emphasis on natural lighting. ''Interior with an Easel, Bredgade 25'' is one of four paintings that depicts Hammershøi's easel. There are two other variants that feature the apartment in addition with the easel. A 1910 painting of the same subject is located in Statens Museum for Kunst, which features a chair between the easel and the wall in addition to a porcelain bowl without a lid on the table visible in the back room. Another variant, which was undated features a chair but with a covered porcelain bowl in the background, was featured at a Sotheby's auction in 1975. This variant is sparse in nature, which features the easel, a small side table half visible with one of the doors open, and a gilt.

Provenance

The painting was sold from the artist to Leonard Borwick in 1912, who was an enthusiast of Hammershøi's work. It was then acquired from Borwick to Adam Black in 1912. Passed on by descent, it was sold at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

European Art Auction on 31 October 2018, where it was sold to the Getty Museum for US$5,037,500, making it the most expensive Danish art piece, which initially had an estimate of $1.5–2.0 million. The museum purchased it through Jack Kilgore & Co. Getty Museum Director Timothy Potts stated: "We are delighted to be able to add this extraordinary work by one of the most important Scandinavian artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to our collection." and "Hammershøi clearly saw himself in the tradition of old master painters (he is often touted as ‘the modern

Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , ; see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch ...

’), and I am sure visitors will see many resonances with paintings by other great northern European artists, such as Caspar David Friedrich, Edvard Munch."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Interior with an Easel, Bredgade 25 Paintings by Vilhelm Hammershøi 1900s in Denmark Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum 1912 paintings Paintings about painting