Vilhelm Hammershøi. Study of a Nude Male Model

Automatic translation from Danish.

Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916). Study of a nude male model. Pencil on paper. Verso signed: 'V Hammershøi'. 62 x 47 cm. (84 x 68 cm.)
Appears with a few tears in the paper.

Provenance: The artist Johan Rohde (1856-1935). Then inherited in his family until 2018, when the work was acquired by the current owner.

Vilhelm Hammershøi is considered as one of the greatest figures in Danish art history, and his fame today reaches far beyond Denmark's borders. In his art, Hammershøi worked with difficult existential themes such as loneliness, isolation and alienation and was for this reason considered as an artistic loner. During his studies at P.S. Krøyer's painting school, Krøyer stated in a letter to an acquaintance:"I have a student who paints quite strangely. I do not understand him, think he will become important, [I] do not try to influence him".
The present drawing probably dates from Hammershøi's student days in the 1880s and contains several of the elements that later became characteristic of his art: an undemanding and unsentimental perception of the motif, a care for details and surface and a special understanding of the gradational tonal process between light and shadow. In Hammershøi's work, the classic academic drawing appears as something else - and more - than just a physiognomic study. It is both a mature and fully-fledged work of art, created by an artist with special insight into the traces, that the life lived leaves on both body and soul.