With our series Price Tag, we aim to demystify art auctioning, and debunk the surrounding myths. In each installment, we’ll focus on a single work from the Meural art library. (You can see some of Vilhelm Hammershøi’s featured works here.) See all installments of Price Tag here.

In 2012, Ida Reading a Letter by Vilhem Hammershøi sold at Sotheby’s auction house in London for £1,721,250 ($2,677,232 USD), far exceeding its pre-sale estimate of £500,000–700,000 ($800,000–1,120,000 USD). The sale broke two records: the highest price for a Hammershøi work—almost three times higher than the past record—and the record for any Danish work of art at auction. Let’s explore why, exactly, it more than doubled expectations.

A nod to Vermeer

Hammershøi’s work contains “a quiet, magic power rooted in both an appreciation of paintings of the Dutch 17th century and the Danish Golden Age in the 19th century,” said Senior Lecturer and Course Director of the MA Art Market & Appraisal at the Kingston School of Art Stephanie Dieckvoss. This quiet, magic power is easily perceived in Hammershøi’s Ida Reading A Letter, and is what likely made the work so attractive to its buyer (an “International Private Collector”)—along with its historical reference point and painting style, said Dieckvoss. “The composition and history of the painting contains all the ingredients of an auction darling: it is a recognizable take on Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting Woman In Blue Reading a Letter, placing it in a distinguished line of portraits of women in solitude.” Vermeer is one of the most admired Dutch artists, and a master of the Golden Age, and so the reference breathes life into the history and inspiration of Ida Reading a Letter.

Sotheby’s catalogue listing for the work expands on the importance of Hammershøi’s compositional relationship to Vermeer’s iconic work: “Hammershøi’s painting acts almost as a mirror image of Vermeer’s: both women adopt the same unselfconscious pose, their heads tilted to read a letter; the hairstyle and clothes, though separated by over two hundred years, bear remarkable similarities; and the comparable positioning of the table slightly obscuring the figure with an indirect light source flooding the scene.”

Intimacy and light

But Ida Reading A Letter isn’t just a reference to another work, of course; it’s a unique snapshot into Hammershøi’s own life. The single subject of the painting, Ida, standing in solitude against the stark white background, is Hammershøi’s wife. This fact, which is well known in the arts community, makes the work even more intimate and sought after. “His reduction of the scene to shades of white both in the interior but even in the woman’s own body speak of a modernity,” said Dieckvoss, “confining the woman spatially to a near prison-like closeness to the viewer while remaining removed from him at the same time—early 20th century psychoanalysts would have a field day!”

It is also one of the first paintings created by the artist at his residence at Strandgade 30, an address that played a critical role in the development of the painter’s singular aesthetic: the use of light, which is in itself a subject of this painting. Writers Hanne Finsen and Inge Vibeke Raaschou-Nielsen expand on this point in their book Vilhelm Hammershøi, En Retrospektiv udstilling. They say that, in his interior landscapes, “light is the principal subject … and that light is the meagre Danish winter light, the light of grey weather quite without colour, warmth, or gaiety, albeit so rich in nuance … There is a light that pours in over the canvas and defines the space … The light is usually indirect for, of course, Hammershøi also knows that indirect light is often the most beautiful.”

The market

Finally, and most importantly, Ida Reading a Letter matched the tastes of the 21st century collector. “[Hammershøi’s paintings] are extremely recognizable,” said Dieckvoss. “The artist didn’t change his style much during his lifetime, and the market is currently all about finding trophy works which are recognizable to other collectors, or friends.” She added, “You can’t mistake him for any other artist.”

Hammershøi’s fan base also seems to transcend national boundaries, an important factor in a successful auction. “[He is] now highly sought after by museums, not only in Denmark but internationally,” said Dieckvoss. “His depictions appeal as much to the seasoned European collector as to Asian collectors who like the skill and subtleness of his work.” Claude Piening, Senior Director in Sotheby’s European Paintings Department, confirmed as much. “Bidding was international, with interest from Asia, America, Scandinavia and Central Europe,” he said. “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.”

Dieckvoss believes that the value of Hammershøi’s work will only continue to increase: “Recently, Hammershøi’s Interior with Woman at Piano, Strandgade 30 sold in New York for a new world record for the artist: $6,211,700, more than doubling the auction estimate. We can only wait to see how Interior with an Easel, Bregade 25 will fare when coming under the hammer at Christie’s … The shift of the auction market from London to New York definitely indicates that the auction houses have high expectations.” All of this points to the purchase of Ida Reading a Letter being a worthwhile investment for the buyer, whether or not they plan to showcase the painting, or keep it in storage until its next auction.