Vilhelm Hammershøi found this scene of a rowan avenue and rippling cornfields while summering in Snekkersten near Elsinore in North Zealand in 1906. The work differs from the artist’s other landscape paintings insofar as he has focused on the foreground, with the tree trunks and avenue on the left side of the picture indicating a way into – and out of – the picture. However, he retains his usual approach of depicting the landscape with no trace of life, except for the sails of the windmill on the horizon.
Hammershøi’s landscape paintings almost always feature trees; sometimes they extend across the entire pictorial space (
B 308), at other times they are seen at a distance, running parallel to the picture plane (
7/2016). In
The Rowan Avenue at Snekkersten, the gnarled trees are arranged at rhythmic intervals along the avenue. Their crowns are cut off by the edge of the frame, and the great contrasts of light and colour – between the heavy, dark tree trunks and the lush, bright landscape in the middle distance and background – bring Japanese pictorial culture to mind, which was a great source of inspiration for many Nordic artists around the turn of the century.
[1]
Inv. no. B 311
Published in:
Fortegnelse over arbejder af Vilhelm Hammershøi, [2], Kunstforeningen April-Maj 1916, København 1916, cat.no. 63, p. 7;
Sophus Michaëlis and Alfred Bramsen: Vilhelm Hammershøi. Kunstneren og hans værk, København 1918, cat.no. 287, p. 105;
Erik Zahle: ”Billedkunst” in C.L. Davids Samling. Nogle Studier, [1], København 1948, p. 207;
Knud Voss and Verner Aspenström: Vilhelm Hammershøi, Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm 1976, cat.no. 29;
Hanne Finsen, Inge Vibeke Raaschou-Nielsen: Vilhelm Hammershøi: en retrospektiv udstilling, Ordrupgaard, Charlottenlund 1981, cat.no. 113, p. 138;
Hanne Finsen and Inge Vibeke Raaschou-Nielsen: Vilhelm Hammershøi – painter of stillness and light, Wildenstein, New York and Phillips Collection, Washington, København 1983, cat.no. 69, p. 81;
Poul Vad in Kjeld von Folsach and Nana Lund (eds.): Dansk kunst i Davids Samling – fra Philipsen til Saxbo, København 1995, cat.no. 37, pp. 104-105;
Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark et al.: Vilhelm Hammershøi, 1864-1916. Danish painter of solitude and light, Ordrupgaard, Charlottenlund, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York 1998, cat.no. 47, pp. 112;
Gertrud Oelsner: ”Øjebliksbilleder” in Annette Johansen, Mette Bøgh Jensen (eds.): Harmoni i blåt. P.S. Krøyers stemningsmaleri i 1890’erne, Skagens Museum, Skagen 2001, cat.no. 10, pp. 35, 87, 103;
Felix Krämer, Ulrich Luckhardt, Barbara Ludwig: Vilhelm Hammershøi, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg 2003, cat.no. 43, pp. 76, 155;
Poul Vad: Hammershøi. Værk og liv, København 2003, 5. ed., pp. 374-376;
Tone Sinding Steinsvik, Ida Lorentzen, Bente Scavenius: Den forunderlige stillheten: Ida Lorentzen (f.1951), Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916), Stiftelsen Modums Blaafarveværk, Modum 2005, cat.no. 57, p. 83;
Henrik Wivel: Hammershøi i Davids Samling, København 2017, pp. 78-79;
Annette Rosenvold Hvidt and Gertrud Oelsner: Vilhelm Hammershøi. På sporet af det åbne billede, København 2018, pp. 186, 214-215;
