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Dimensions: 46.3 by 55.3cm., 18¼ by 21¾in.
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Exhibited: Berlin, Grosse Berliner Kunst-Ausstellung, 1900, no. 1705
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Literature: Poul Vad, Hammershoi: Vaerk og liv, Denmark, 1988, p. 72, catalogued & illustrated
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Notes: THE PROPERTY OF AMBASSADOR AND MRS EDWARD ELSON
Painted in 1892, Hammershoei's enigmatic view is of Copenhagen's Frederiksholm canal, constructed in the 17υth Century. Christian IV's Brewery was originally part of the city's fortifications. Modernised by the king in 1608, it stands out in the composition against the canal, which opens into Copenhagen harbour.
The quayside depicted by the artist is devoid of people, the human presence limited to that of the meditative observer, gazing upon the scene suffused with a '...meagre Danish winter light, the light of grey weather without colour warmth, or gaiety, albeit so rich in nuance...' (Hanne Finsen and Inge Vebeke Raaschou-Nielsen, Vilhelm Hammershoei, En Retrospektiv udstilling, Copenhagen, 1981, p. 16).
The lack of narrative and the sense of remoteness lent by the muted palette in Hammershoei's view illustrate a mood instead of depicting a moment. As in the artist's celebrated interior views, narrative is subordinate to atmosphere. The haunting stillness of the canal view is barely warmed by the rusty reds of the buildings lining the water, and the scene is shrouded by a fog of introspection in the artist's subtly nuanced colour scheme. Hammershoei was exposed to the work of his contemporary and role model, James McNeill Whistler, when the artists exhibited together in 1889 at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. The influence of Whistler's subdued palette, delicate chiaroscuro and melancholy atmosphere as seen in his Nocturnes (fig. 1), is evident in the present work.
Although largely overlooked by the Danish critics and public during his lifetime, Hammershoei exhibited in France, Italy, Germany, England and the United States, and his work was appreciated by lights of early modernism such as the artist Auguste Renoir, the Russian ballet master Serge Diaghilev, and the eminent art critic Théodore Duret, who spoke of the artist as a 'master of the foremost rank.'
This work has been agreed for inclusion in the exhibition Vilhelm Hammershoei, to be held in London at the Royal Academy of Arts from 28 June to 7 September 2008 and at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo from 30 September to 7 December 2008.
FIG. 1, J. M. Whistler, Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge, Tate Britain, London
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