Vilhelm
Hammershøi, Anciana de pie junto a una ventana, 1885, óleo sobre tela, 35 x 37
cm, The Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhague
(Click sobre la
imagen para ampliar)
Leemos por ahí: "In 1904, Rainer
Maria Rilke, intending to write an essay about Hammershoi, in turn paid him a
visit at home. The Austrian poet remarked that conversation was difficult with
this taciturn man. Hammershoi's reluctance to talk was matched by a
quasi-monachal rejection of the joyous trappings of our world. Before moving
into their Strandgade apartment, he and his wife had the paneling, the
moldings, the doors and the windows painted white. The colored areas of the
walls and ceilings were coated in gray, and the wide floorboards stained dark
brown - the very tonalities favored by the painter in his pictures. Not
surprisingly his friends suspected that he suffered from neurasthenia.
Concerning a man who led the life of a recluse, and declined to appear in
public, whether at museum openings or theatrical performances, the suspicion
may have been founded."
