Hammershøi painting sale trails world record

A landscape painting by Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi, titled ‘Landscape, view from Lejre,’ has been sold at a Sotheby’s auction in London for GBP 660,000, equivalent to DKK 5.3 million. This falls short of Hammershøi’s own record, where his ‘Landscape. Summer. Ryet’ fetched GBP 2.3 million or DKK 20 million in March 2024. However, neither achieved the highest sale price like his ‘Interior. Music Room, Strandgade 30,’ which sold for nearly DKK 63 million. Sotheby’s European paintings head, Claude Piening, highlighted a special attention to Hammershøi in the art world, referring to what the industry terms a ‘Hammershøi moment.’ Hammershøi, who lived from 1864 to 1916, is celebrated for his simple and identifiable motifs and was one of the leading Danish artists of his time.