The easel demands association with the artistic process of creation: it is self-reflective by definition. With the introduction of the easel, the painting moves from being an interior to being a variation on a classical theme – the studio painting. 4 The third variant is the present picture, without the chair and bowl, but with distinct effects of sunlight coming into the room. Another, undated version, including the chair but with a covered porcelain bowl in the background was offered at Sotheby’s London on 26 February 1975. One slightly earlier variant of the same subject is the painting from 1910 in the Statens Museum for Kunst with an additional chair between the easel and the wall and a porcelain bowl without lid on the table visible in the back room (fig. As this was clearly not the one he worked on at home, it is conceivable that it was a mobile folding easel he may have taken to the country in the summer, for example. In contrast, the present picture is one of three versions with a light, three-legged easel.
2 This heavier easel appears in just one – the first – of Hammershøi 's four interiors with an easel, dating from 1907 (fig. 1 Yet contemporary photographs of Hammershøi in front of his working easel show a different model from the one in the present painting, made from light wood and with a much heavier, sturdy frame. While Hammershøi painted numerous replicas or variations of his own interiors, pictures with an easel or other studio props are rare, especially considering the fact that his homes doubled as subject matter and working space.
The present interior is unusual in that it is one of only four currently known in Hammershøi’s oeuvre that depict an artist’s easel. Interiors are Hammershøi’s most popular pictures, and they have defined public perception of his achievements as an artist.