One of several portraits Vilhelm Hammershøi painted in the summer villa “Spurveskjul”, which he rented in 1911. The house was originally designed and constructed by the painter N. A. Abildgaard. Hammershøi was so excited about the place, that he considered to buy the villa. In the summertime Hammershøi used to paint landscapes, but since he felt so comfortable in the villa, he worked indoors in the hall on the first floor under a barrel-vaulted ceiling and with a balcony with door and windows towards the garden. It was here he painted his self-portraits.

Knud Vad, “Hammershøi”, 2003 pp. 351, describes the painting (in Danish): "Hammershøi has portrayed himself in the left part of the rectangular painting, turned towards the edge of the frame, the way he could see himself in the mirror, hence he seems to be lefthanded. In the right part he has painted the wall with the window and the door towards the balcony. The door is open into the room. This he would not have been able to see in the mirror, hence the painting is a composition. The grey/white walls and ceiling, the small window panes, the white door frame and the door with the brass knob lit up by the light from outside gives the whole painting an exquisite greyish tint. In this bright and light room under the low vaulted ceiling his own body in the grey/black jacket has worked by its fullness and solidity. He must have felt this, and the painting is much more than just a self-portrait.....The composition gives the viewer an expressive and symbolic experience of the room".

Statens Museum for Kunst (The National Gallery of Denmark) owns a nearly identically painting but much larger, that one Michaëlis and Bramsen no. 346 with the measurement 126×149, reproduced Knud Vad p. 353 and on this page.