Vilhelm Hammershøi
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Vilhelm Hammershøi (15 May 1864 – 13 February 1916) was an artist (primarily a painter, but also a draftsman) born in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The son of a merchant, Christian Hammershøi (1828 – 1893), and his wife, Frederikke (née Rentzmann; 1838 – 1914), he studied drawing from the age of eight with Neils Christian Kierkegaard and Holger Grønvold, as well as painting with Vilhelm Kyhn, before embarking on studies with Frederik Vermehren and others at the Kunstakademiet [The Royal Academy of Fine Arts]. From 1883 to 1885, he studied with Peder Severin Krøyer at De frie Studieskoler [The Independent Study Schools], then debuted in the Charlottenborg Exhibition in the spring of 1885 with Portrait of a Young Girl (his sister, Anna; Pierre Auguste Renoir is reported to have admired this painting.)
Hammershøi worked mainly in his native city, painting portraits, architecture, and interiors. He also journeyed to the surrounding countryside and locations beyond, where he painted rolling hills, stands of trees, farm houses, and other landscapes. He is most celebrated, however, for his interiors, many of which he painted in Copenhagen at Strandgade 30 (his and his wife's residence from 1898 to 1909) and Strandgade 25 (their residence from 1913 to 1916). Hammershøi's wife, Ida Ilsted (they married in 1891) figures in many of these interiors, often depicted from behind. (Ida is also the model in many similar works by her brother, Peter Ilsted. Peter and Vilhelm were lifelong friends, business partners, and colleagues. The Metropolitan Museum of Art held an exhibition of their collective works in 2001.)
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[edit] Paintings
Hammershoi's paintings are best described as muted in tone. He refrained from employing bright colors (except in his very early academic works), opting always for a limited palette consisting of grays, as well as desaturated yellows, greens, and other dark hues. The overall impression of his style is one of coolness, restraint, and quietude. His tableaux of figures turned away from the viewer project an air of slight tension and mystery, while his exteriors of grand buildings in Copenhagen and in London (he painted two exteriors of the British Museum between 1905 and 1906) are devoid of people; a quality they share in common with his landscapes.
After his death in 1916 his work gradually sank into oblivion. Hammershøi’s dispassionately purist style was too much at odds with the disquieting experiments of the post-war avant-garde. Its stridency made Hammershøi’s enigmatically sad art seem strangely outdated. The rediscovery and reassessment of Symbolism in recent years paved the way for Hammershøi’s melancholic vision to regain its place in the consciousness of the public. Hammershøi is now not only one of the most well-known artists in Scandinavia, but he has also regained popularity in Paris and New York thanks to comprehensive retrospectives afforded him by the Musée d'Orsay and the Guggenheim Museum.
[edit] Recognition
In 1997 his image was put on a Danish postage stamp.
In 2005, Michael Palin, who owns some of Hammershøi's work, presented a BBC television documentary, Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershoi.
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