Sunny Chamber
by HAMMERSHØI, Vilhelm, Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm
Like all provincial styles, Biedermeier lasted longest in less-sophisticated centres and was still in evidence in Scandinavia at the end of the nineteenth century in such views as Vilhelm Hammershøi’s Sunny Chamber. Here the almost neo-Egyptian monumentality of the furniture is in striking contrast with the light pouring into the chamber, and with the abstract elegance of the paintings on the wall.