Press Release London

For Immediate Release

London | +44 (0)20 7293 6000 | Matthew Floris | matthew.floris@sothebys.com Kelly Signorelli-Chaplin | kelly.schaplin@sothebys.com | Matthew Weigman | matthew.weigman@sothebys.com Denmark | +45 33 13 55 56 | Nina Wedell-Wedellsborg | nina.wedell@sothebys.com

FIVE PAINTINGS BY VILHELM HAMMERSHI TO HEADLINE SOTHEBYS SCANDINAVIAN SALE IN LONDON ON 11 JUNE 2012

Ida Reading a Letter, oil on canvas, painted in 1899, 66 by 59cm., 26 by 23in. Estimate 500,000-700,000*

FIVE PAINTINGS BY VILHELM HAMMERSHI (1864-1916) will headline Sothebys Scandinavian Sale on 2012. Monday, 11 June 2012 An exceptional offering, the group comes to the market following the companys sale of three works by the Danish master in November 2011**. Four of the paintings depict Hammershis home in Strandgade 30 in Copenhagen, which provided the backdrop for the artists most iconic and celebrated works. Together, the group is estimated to bring in excess of 1.45 million. Commenting on this unprecedented event in recent years, Claude Piening, Senior Director in Sothebys European Paintings Department, said: We are delighted to be offering such an important and representative group of paintings by the artist, particularly at a time when his work is receiving the attention and appreciation it deserves, in light of the major 2008 retrospective at the Royal Academy and the Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, and the current show at the Statens Museum in Copenhagen. *** Commenting on the sale of the paintings, Nina Wedell-Wedellsborg, Head of Sothebys Denmark, said: 2012 will be a special year for Hammershi, with the great spring exhibition at the Statens Museum travelling to Munich in the summer, and Sothebys sale of a group of paintings in June. Public and private interest in the artist has grown considerably over the last twenty years, and particularly in Asia over the last five years. What makes the three works from the three

different Danish private collections so special, is that they have remained in the same family collections for more than fifty years, a clear indication of the esteem in which they have been held. Each painting presents separate and distinctive motifs: a candlelit interior, the artists beloved wife Ida, and a cityscape. Ida Reading a Letter, painted in 1899 (66 by 59cm., 26 by 23in.), was among the first works painted by Hammershi in the rooms of Strandgade 30, an address that was to play a critical role in the development of the painters singular aesthetic. The painter and his wife moved into the apartment in 1898 and remained there until 1909. His arrangement and rearrangement of the distinctive, sparsely furnished space, bare wooden floorboard, perpendicular wall mouldings, sentinel stoves and painted white doors quickly became the central motif of his work. The present work, estimated at 500,000-700,000, is painted in a silvery-grey palette and with an absence of sentimentality. These qualities draw a striking comparison with the oeuvre of James McNeill Whistler, the American artist who deeply influenced Hammershi. Both artists distilled the painting of women in empty rooms to its very essence, the limited tonal range further tempering any narrative. In his subtle use of light, muted tones and subject, Hammershi perhaps owes his greatest debt to the Dutch seventeenth-century master Johannes Vermeer and he would have seen Vermeers works first-hand on a trip to Holland in 1887. The composition is remarkably similar to Vermeers Woman Reading a Letter to the extent that it seems impossible Hammershi did not have this work in mind: both women adopt the same unselfconscious pose, their heads tilted to read a letter; the hairstyle and clothes; the positioning of the table slightly obscuring the figure with an indirect light source flooding the scene. The rarefied light is the principal subject here, with nuances that betray the Danish setting. Interior with Two Candles, painted in 1904 (67 by 54cm., 26 by 21in.), also depicts a room in Strandgade 30 and comes to auction from a Danish Private Collection. The picture relates to Mntsamleren (The Coin Collector), now housed in the Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo. The very absence of physical human presence, alluded to by the burning candles, imbues the painting with an acutely haunting sense of lingering. It illustrates Hammershis extraordinary ability to capture an ambience of timelessness and introspective solitude, his observation of the ethereal candlelight against the geometric forms of the apartment adding to the works powerful effect. The sense of seclusion and introspection is central to the tenets of Symbolism, of which Hammershi is now regarded as a leading exponent. The oil on canvas is estimated at 400,000-600,000.

Depicting the artist's beloved wife Ida Hammershis most enduring model and the inspiration for his most celebrated works dressed in black seen only from behind, Ida in an Interior, also painted in 1904 at Strandgade, is evocatively poetic (37 by 27.5cm., 14 by 11in.). Ida is portrayed with a pewter tray beside an empire washstand visible to the right of the composition. The room echoes with stillness and space, and while the subject of the painting is the woman, it is the architectural shapes and window beyond that attracts the viewers attention. The artist commented on what inspired him most in his subjects, and he described how the lines, the architectonic structure of the painting defined his chosen motifs, and then of course, the light. The interior appearance of Strandgade 30 was not incidental. Vilhelm and Ida had the eighteenth-century wall paneling and mouldings, and the doors and window frames, painted white before moving in. The artist used his home as a stage set to explore his fascination with the play of light over geometrical shapes. From a Danish Private Collection, the present work is estimated at 250,000-350,000.
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Painted in 1900, the fourth work in the group showing the interior at Strandgade 30 is Ida Standing at a Desk (41 by 35cm., 16 by 13 in.), estimated at 200,000300,000. The painting captures Hammershis wife in an intimate moment, absorbed by her domestic responsibilities, the enclosed space a retreat from modernity and the outside world.

Strandgade with Christians Kirke in the background (61 by 79cm., 24 by 31in.) sees the artist move beyond the interior of his apartment, outside and onto one end of Strandgade. Painted in 1907, the present work depicts Christians Kirke (Christians Church), a magnificent Rococo church. The immediate surroundings of Hammershis home would have held great personal significance for him. His predilection for monumental buildings focused on palaces and churches which had a particularly strong, symbolical or national significance. Christians Kirke was originally built as a church for the large German community of the Christianshavn District of Copenhagen. The present work shows the church under restoration with scaffolding on the faade. It comes to the market from a Danish Private Collection and is estimated at 100,000-150,000.

*Pre-sale estimates do not include buyers premium. ** On 22 November 2011, Interior with Ida in a White Chair by Vilhelm Hammershi achieved the third highest price for a Hammershi painting sold at auction, selling for 577,250. Interior sold for a well-above estimate of 169,250 (est. 100,000-150,000) and Svend Hammershi. Forarbejde til Mntsamleren (Svend Hammershi. Study for the Coin Collector) brought 103,250 (est. 30,000-50,000). Sothebys holds the record for a work by Hammershi sold at auction: Interieur med staffeli, Bredgade 25 (Interior with easel, Bredgade 25), painted circa 1910, sold for 590,400 on 13 June 2006. *** Hammershi and Europe, Statens Museum for Kunst (National Gallery of Denmark) 4 February 20 May 2012.