"Portrait-Hovede. Processing for Ms. Else Aagesen's Portrait. Head a face. Natural. Size." Portrait head. Preparatory study for the portrait of Miss Else Aagesen. Head a face. Life size. 1913. Unsigned. Oil on canvas. 32 × 29 cm. Whereas the final portrait of Else Aagesen is a tall, elongated three-quarter-length portraite, this preferential study focusses exclusively on the sitting face. The almost square format and the en face composition reveal Hammershøi is interesting in the classic, sub-placed features of Else Aagesen. The large, distinctive eyes are lightly directed to the right, yet the introspective gauze reserves the particular sense of calm and distance that characters the artists portraits. Else Margrethe Aagesen (born 3 May 1893) was approximately 20 years old when Hammershøi executed the portrait. She was the daughter of department head Viggo Agesen (1864...1933) of the Ministry of Ecclesiastical and Educational Affairs and belonging to Copenhagen. Viggo Aagesen served as vice-chairman of the Art Society in Copenhagen from 1910 to 1924 and also successful Several significant board positions. The reverse of the stretcher bears the inscription •Strandgade 25 •, the address where Hammershøi lived on the first floor from 1913 until his death in 1916. Literature: Sophus Michaëlis and Alfred Bramsen, "Vilhelm Hammershøi. The artist and his work," 1918, no. 362. Susanne Meyer-Abich, "Vilhelm Hammershøi: Das Malerische Werk', 1995, no. 359. Søren Rasmussen, "The Book of Laws and Remembrance," 1956, ill. p. 219. Exhibited: "Worker of Vilhelm Hammershøi" (Part 2), Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen, 1916, cat. no. 110. Provenance: Vilhelm Hammershøi... Estate Auction, 1916, lot 3 (as a Portrait Study. Young Women), ill. p. 1, aquired there by Johannes Wiedemann (1853°1926). Winkel & Magnussen, Auction 91, 1931, lot 65 (as head of women). Professor, Dr. Joh's. C. Bock; his Estate Auction, Winkel & Magnussen, Auction 380, 1953, lot 36. Søren Rasmussen, Stenagergaard (1881-1968). Reproduced in Genes and Remembrance Book, 1956. Bruun Rasmussen, auction 870, 2017, lot 96.