Vilhelm Hammershøi

2/11/2021 7:45:09 AM

Vilhelm Hammershøi

by Abigail Lashbrook

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Interior with Woman at Piano, 1901

Sponsored by Chelsea Classical Studio

Vilhelm Hammershøi was born in Copenhagen in 1864, and spent most of his life living and working in that city. He is remarkable for the fact that although he was living and working in Europe during the time of the tumultuous transformation in art from classical realism to modernism and was very much up-to-date with the current affairs of the art world, throughout his career he remained consistent to his singular vision. To this day, a Hammershøi painting is highly distinctive, even amongst the Copenhagen school of painters who worked in the same genre – the stripped-down interiors, the strong sense of cool north light flooding the room, the mysterious quiet figures (most often turned away from the viewer), and the limited palette of greys, ochres, and blacks makes his work stand out anywhere. Of his contemporaries, James McNeill Whistler was probably the most direct influence; the two had a similar aesthetic and Hammershoi found his work very inspiring, even doing his own version of Whistler’s famous ‘Mother’ painting. Vermeer is the other artist who is strongly referenced in Hammershøi’s work– both artists were inspired by the interiors of their homes and the way the light strikes them.

The majority of his paintings were done inside his own home at Strandgade 30 in Copenhagen, with his wife Ida as the model; looking at a selection of Hammershøi’s interiors is mesmerizing because of the endless beautiful moments he finds within the limitations of a single setting and model. Enjoy comparing this selection of his tranquil and mysterious works. To read more, visit this thoughtful essay on Hammershoi over at the Irish Times.