Slender Trees on a Hill

Vilhelm Hammershøi Danish

Not on view

The subject of this large sheet was found in Dyrehaven (Royal Deer Park), just a few miles north of Copenhagen. Hammershøi captures sunlight enveloping a patch of trees and outlines their nearly bare branches. Bits of the white paper ground suggest the penetration of brilliant light through, and the airy consistency of, the crowns of the trees. With bold use of graphite, the artist scratched out dark trunks and branches. Here the unpopulated forest pulsates with energy, in a hallucinatory depiction of nature.

Slender Trees on a Hill, Vilhelm Hammershøi (Danish, Copenhagen 1864–1916 Copenhagen), Graphite, incised for transfer; verso: made black with graphite, chalk or charcoal

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