Interior with Girl at the Clavier

Hammershøi is a Danish painter known for his quiet and calm paintings. He is most famous for his lack of bright colors, instead he opts for muted ones. His work is often described as melancholy, as the figures are always turned away from the viewer. Even though his style and technique did not differ greatly from those of typical painters of the middle of the 1880s, his psychological conception is more characteristic of the 1890s and it was not always understood by his contemporaries. In fact, a portrait of his sister in 1885 (Den Hirchsprungske Samling, Copenhagen) was rejected for the Neuhausen Prize; the first step was then taken towards the creation of the Free Exhibition, of which Hammershøi was a founding member. His palette was already a harmonious tonality of grey to soft black, of which he was a true master, to white, accentuated by warmer colors.