Interior. Artificial Light

About this work

Hammershøi’s favourite motif was a sparsely furnished room where gentle, splendidly depicted daylight falls upon the walls, doors, and floor, and where a single woman is occupied by her chores, isolated from the world. Here, however, he made an exception: the scene is a dark interior at night, lit only by two candles. There are no people in the room, and no logical explanation for the arrangement of the furniture. Hammershøi has suspended their usual function, i.e. to provide a setting for human interaction. This exacerbates the strong sense of absence that Hammershøi often conjures up in his paintings. Hammershøi painted an oval shaped frame as if the scene is watched through a mirror. Perhaps it was intended as a reference to the traditional notion of art mirroring reality.