Ida Reading a Letter by Vilhelm Hammershøi. (Click on image to enlarge).
THERE was a record for any Danish work of art at auction at Sotheby’s when Vilhelm Hammershøi’s Ida Reading a Letter sold for £1,721,250. It was hotly pursued by three bidders on the telephone before being knocked down to an international private collector. The price surpassed an estimate of £500,000-700,000 and was almost three times above the previous record. Ida Reading a Letter was one of five paintings by Vilhelm Hammershøi in the sale of European Paintings. His work made a combined total of £4,313,450 in a sale which brought an overall total of £6,527,475.
Claude Piening, of Sotheby’s European Paintings department, said: “Bidding was international, with interest from Asia, America, Scandinavia and Central Europe. Hammershøi appeals to the tastes of the 21st-century collector. Exhibitions in London, Tokyo, Denmark and currently Munich continue to attract new admirers of his work, which draws parallels with Vermeer and Whistler, artists with similar sensibilities.”