Interior. The Music Room, Strandgade 30(1907)COURTESY SOTHEBY’S
A painting by Vilhelm Hammershøi is headed toauctionat aSotheby’smodern art evening sale in New York this May with the highest-ever estimate given the artist’s work.
Interior. The Music Room, Strandgade 30(1907) depicts the kind of serene scene typical of Hammershøi. A piano abuts a wall with white-trimmed wainscoting; a picture hangs above it. A violin rests on a wooden chair, and a cello leans against the piano. Natural light comes in thɾօυɢҺ a window.
This interior was, in fact, Hammershøi’s own. The painting is part of a series of works that he made while he and his wife Ida lived in an apartment on Strandgade 30 in Copenhagen from 1898 until 1908.
According to a press release from Sotheby’s, the instruments featured inInterior. The Music Room, Strandgade 30most likely belonged to the children of Hammershøi’s friєɴԀ, patron, and biographer, Alfred Bramsen.
At Sotheby’s, the painting will have an estimate of $3 million–$5 million, the highest ever given a Hammershøi work at public auction.
The last time the painting changed hands was in 1944, when relatives of the current owners of the Strandgade 30 apartment bought the painting and promptly had it hung on the very wall that the work depicts.
Although this work’s estimate is high for a Hammershøi painting, his works have sometimes sold for more than $5 million.
The Getty acquiredInterior with an Easel, Bredgade 25(1912) in 2018for $5.04 millionin a Christie’s auction. Then, during the pandemic, a collector boughtInterior with a Woman Standing(1913) for $5 million from an online-only edition of TEFAF Maastricht. Hammershøi’s record sale was set last year, whenStue (Interior with an Oval Mirror), 1916, sold for$6.3 millionin a Christie’s auction, where it bore an estimate of just $1.5 million–$2.5 million.
The painting will travel from Denmark to be viewed in London for a few days in mid-April. Then it will arrive in New York for a pre-show viewing.
“It fills us with pride to be sєɴԀing this Danish masterpiece forth into the world, and for Hammershøi’s inimitable and timeless way of seeing to be appreciated and enjoyed by a global audience,” said Nina Wedell-Wedellsborg, of Sotheby’s Denmark, in a ȿτɑτємєɴτ. “As we have seen in recent years, his aesthetic and popularity have truly transcєɴԀed his local market, and he now occupies a key position in the canon of classic modern artists.”
