The Music Room (section)

A cello rests against a shadowy piano, a white chair sits empty, and no musician appears anywhere in sight. Vilhelm Hammershøi painted this quiet scene, "The Music Room," in 1907. The Danish artist built his reputation on rooms just like this one, spaces that hold instruments and furniture but no people. The music has clearly stopped, or perhaps it never started, and that unresolved feeling is exactly what he was after.

Muted grays, dull browns, and worn whites fill the canvas, with barely a trace of bright color to break the calm. Hammershøi often used his own Copenhagen apartment as his subject, returning to the same corners over and over to study how light fell across bare walls. Some viewers read sadness in these paintings while others sense a gentle peace, and he seemed happy to leave that question open. Nearly forgotten in the years after his death, he was later rediscovered and now stands among Denmark's most original painters, celebrated for finding meaning in the objects people leave behind.