Interior of Courtyard, Strandgade 30

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Interior of Courtyard, Strandgade 30

Artist Vilhelm Hammershøi (Danish, 1864-1916)

Place of OriginDenmark

Date1899

Dimensions25 7/8 x 18 5/8 in. (66 x 47 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of The Georgia Welles Apollo Society

Object number

2000.30

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 33

Label TextIn December 1898 Vilhelm Hammershøi moved into a 17th-century merchant house at Strandgade 30, Copenhagen, Denmark. For the decade that he resided there in a second-floor apartment he painted more than 60 canvases depicting the rooms of the dwelling, often including his wife, Ida. Influenced by Dutch 17th-century paintings of domestic interiors by Jan Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch (see a courtyard scene by de Hooch in Gallery 24), Hammershøi's meditations on the interior spaces of his apartment are psychologically enigmatic. His intense, personal vision conveys a pervasive quietness and mysterious emptiness. Here Hammershøi renders the building's interior courtyard, with strong illumination focused on an open window. Doorways at lower right, each obscured, lead to the street and to the entrance to the apartment. The eccentric and irregular geometries created by walls and windows, overhangs and thresholds, give the composition a distinctly disquieting quality. The opened window and doorways suggest human presence, but the overall effect is one of profound absence.Published ReferencesBramsen, Alfred, Fortegnelse over Vilhelm Hammershøis Arbejder [Inventory of Vilhelm Hammershøi's Works], Copenhagen, 1900, 1900, no. 110.

Bramsen, Alfred and Sophus Michaëlis, Vilhelm Hammershøi. Kunstneren og hans Vœrk [Vilhelm Hammershøi: The Artist and His Work], Copenhagen/Christiania, 1918, p. 96, no. 193.

Vad, Poul, Vilhelm Hammershøi and Danish Art at the Turn of the Century, New York/New Haven, 1992, pp. 190, 454, pl. 125, p. 193 (first published as Hammershøi. Vœrk og liv [Hammershøi: Work and Life], Copenhagen, 1988, ill. p. 193).

Fonsmark, Anne-Birgitte and Mikael Wivel, eds., Vilhelm Hammershøi, 1864-1916: Danish Painter of Solitude and Light, Copenhagen, Ordrupgaard, 1998, exh. cat., p. 155, no. 17, color pl. p. 73.

Goldin, Marco, ed., da Cezanne a Mondrian impressionismo expressionismo cubismo e il paesaggio del nuovo secolo in Europa, 1878-1918, Conegliano, Linea d'ombra libri, 1999, p. 223, color pl.

"A Selection of 2000 Museum Acquisitions," Apollo, vol. 152, no. 466, Dec. 2000, repr. p. 46 (col.).

Berkowitz, Roger M. and Lawrence W. Nichols, "Selected Acquisitions Made by the Toledo Museum of Art, 1990-2001," The Burlington Magazine, vol. 143, no. 1177, April 2001, pp. 257, 260, fig. X (col.).

"La chronique des arts: principales acquisitions des musées en 2001," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 149, no. 1598, Mar. 2002, repr. p. 54.

Rapetti, Rodolphe, Le symbolisme, Paris, Flammarion, 2005, pp. 270-271, fig. 173 (col.).

Vilhelm Hammershoi: The Poetry of Silence, London, Royal Academy, 2008, no. 23, pp. 33, 147, repr. p. 81 (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 283, repr. (col.).

Inspired Giving: The Apollo Society 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 2010, p. 33, repr. (col. ) p. 33.

Monrad, Kasper, Vilhelm Hammershøi and Europe, Copenhagen, Statens museum for Kunst, 2012, no. 29, p. 48, repr. (col.) p. 51.

At Home with Hammershøi, Copenhagen, Ordrupgaard, 2016, fig. 32, repr. (col.) p. 38, fig. 80, repr. (col.) p. 90.

Larsen, Ditte, Hammershøi på pindene, Hjortshøj, Denmark, Kristensen & Ko., 2018, repr. (col.) p. 6.

Hvidt, Annette Rosenvold and Gertrud Oelsner, Vilhelm Hammershoi: pa sporet af det abne billede, Denmark, Lindhardt, 2018, p. 232, repr. (col.) p. 233.

Exhibition HistoryDen frie Udstilling [The Independent Exhibition], Copenhagen, 1899, no. 50.

Exposition universelle de 1900 [World's Fair], Paris, 1900, no. 29.

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Kunstforeningen [Copenhagen Art Society], Copenhagen, 1916, vol. 1, no. 146.

Udvalg af Vilhelm Hammershøi arbejder [Selections of Vilhelm Hammershøi's Works], Kunstforeningen [Copenhagen Art Society], Copenhagen, 1930, no. 10.

Symbolism I dansk kunst [Symbolism in Danish Art], Nivaagaard, Nivå, 1993, no. 40.

Copenhagen, Ordrupgaard; Paris, Musée d'Orsay; New York, Guggenheim, Vilhelm Hammershøi, 1864-1916, Danish Painter of Solitude and Light, 1997-1998.

Treviso, Casa dei Carraresi, da Cezanne a Mondrian impressionismo expressionismo cubismo e il paesaggio del nuovo secolo in Europa, 1878-1918, Sept. 11, 1999-Jan. 9, 2000.

London, Royal Academy; Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art, Vilhelm Hammershoi: The Poetry of Silence, 2008.

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, Inspired Giving: The Apollo Society 25th Anniversary Exhibition, October 15, 2010-February 13, 2011.

Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Vilhelm Hammershøi and Europe, June 15-September 16, 2012.

Charlottenlund, Denmark, Ordrupgaard Museum of French Impressionism, Vilhelm Hammershoi: Strandgade 30, March 3- June 19, 2016.