Ida Reading a Letter

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Ida Reading a Letter is an 1899 oil painting by Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi. It is on canvas and measures 66 cm by 59 cm (26 in by 23 in); it is in a private collection.

The work is influenced by Dutch Golden Age painting, especially the interiors of Johannes Vermeer. Hammershøi visited the Netherlands in 1887 and saw Vermeer and his Delft contemporaries. This painting recalls Vermeer’s Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, with a similar hairstyle, a simple table, soft indirect light, and few objects.

Hammershøi painted Ida Reading a Letter about a year after moving into his Strandgade 30 apartment in Copenhagen. The scene shows his wife Ida reading a letter. She stands near a table set with a double coffee pot and a cup. The closed door behind her and the open door in front help anchor her in a calm, gray space, a style often used in his interiors of that period.

The painting drew positive attention at a London exhibition in 2008, renewing international interest in his work. It had been bought directly from the artist by Edmund Henriques and stayed with his descendants until it appeared on the art market in 1984. It was sold on 11 June 2012 at Sotheby’s in London for £1.7 million, a new record price for the artist.