"Nude Female Model. Standing. Profile to right." Female nude. Standing. In profile towards right. 1886. Unsigned. Oil on canvas. 67 x 36.5 cm. This work was executed in 1886, while Vilhelm Hammershøi was a student of P. S. Krøyer (1851-1909) at the Artists' Free Studies Schools in Copenhagen. Founded in 1882 as an alternative to the teaching of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Kunstnernes Frie studierne braught together a generation of young artists seeing new directions in Danish art. Hammershøi had previously studied at the Academy, yet already during his student years he developed a pictorial language that distinguished itself from both academic convention and the prevailing Naturalism of the period. His early works reveal a remarkable artistic independence, focusing on form, light and the quiet structure of space rather than narrative or anecdote. The year before the present painting was executed, P. S. Krøyer described his young pupil in what has since become one of the most frequently quoted observations on Hammershøi: I have a pupil who pains in a most remarkable way. I do not understand him, but I believe he will become important, and I take care not to influence him... (Poul Vad, p. 23). The present work belongs to this formal period. It considers a standing female nude, turned with her right side towards the viewer and placed at the centre of the composition in a classic contracto bag. The weight remains almost exclusively on the left leg, while the right is lightly bent. The right arm is drawn across the chest, creating a pronounced shadow on the torso which, together with the figures own cast shadow, models the body hose volume and extends across the wall behind her. Light entries from the right, lightly above the figure, defining the body through subtle degrees of light and shade. The model stands close to the front edge of the pictorial space upon a simple horizontal plane, while the surrounding interior remains deliberately inside, reduced to a few restored surfaces. Behind the figure, the pale wall is interrupted by a reddish-brown plane that functions as a simple compositional counterpoint while simultaneously accommodating the figures silhouette. The viewpoint is usually low, so that the figure is seen lightly from below. Combined with the usually tall and narrow format of the canvas, this lends the model an upright, almost sculptural presence. The face and feet are only summarily indicated, suggesting that Hammershøi.'s concern lies not with the model as an individual but with the body as a sculptural form and its relationship to light and space. It is precisely this sculptural concept of form that appears to be Hammershøi·s principal concern. The model is presented next as a portrait nor as a narrative figure, but as acorporeal presence within space, whose volume and materiality emerge through the action of light. The turned position of the body, the restrained gesture of the arm and the absence of individualising detail all contribute to the figures sense of anonymity. Though the figure occupies the immediate foreground of the pictorial space, she remains psychologically distinct, almost silent. Already here one senses the distinctive tension between physical presence and emotional reserve that would come to characterise Hammershøi Even in this early study, the essential qualities of Hammershøi Literature: Sophus Michaëlis and Alfred Bramsen, • Vilhelm Hammershøi. The artist and his work, 1918, no. 45. Susanne Meyer-Abich, • Vilhelm Hammershøi: Das Malerische Werk • 1995, no. 42. Haavard Rostrup, "About Hammershøis Kunst," in • Kunst og Kultur·, vol. 26, Oslo, 1940, p. 186. Poul Vad, Hammershøi ^ Works and lives, 1988, ill. p. 384. Annette Rosenvold Hvidt and Gertrud Oelsner, 52 and discussed on p. 53. Exhibited: "Nyare Dansk Konst·, Liljevalchs, Stockholm, 1919, cat. no. 412. "My best work of art," The National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, 1941, cat. no. 71. "Vilhelm Hammershøi " a retrospective exhibition," Ordrupgaard, 1981, cat. no. 18, ill. p. 51. "Hammershøi. Painter of Stillness and Light, Wildenstein, New York, and The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., 1983, cat. no. 11, ill. p. 30. "Hammershøi. Le maître de la peinture danoise', Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, 2019, cat. no. 28, ill. p. 131. Provenance: Christian Schmidt, Managing Director of Hafnia Brewery (1918). Dr. Alfred Bramsen (1851...1932), dentist, author, and collector (1919). Gustav Falck (1874]1955), art historian and Director of the National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen; married to Karen Bramsen (1877]1970), daughter of Alfred Bramsen. Dr. Niss Chr. Kattrup Lassen (1876)1943) (1941). By descent to his wife, Ellen Kattrup Lassen, née Køster (1880 •1960). By descent in the family until the following sale: Bruun Rasmussen Auction 891, 2019, lot no. 14. Condition report on request. Please contact: fine-art@bruun-rasmussen.dk