Vilhelm Hammershøi (), often anglicised as Vilhelm Hammershoi (15 May 186413 February 1916), was a
Danish painter
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
. He is known for his poetic, subdued portraits and interiors.
In 1905,
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...
wrote of the artist, "Hammershøi is not one of those about whom one can speak quickly. His work is wide-ranging and slow, and at whatever moment one comprehends it, it will always provide an opportunity to talk about what is important and essential in art".
Life
Vilhelm Hammershøi was born in 1864 in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
,
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
. He was the son of a merchant, Christian Hammershøi, and his wealthy wife, Frederikke (née Rentzmann), and had a younger brother,
Svend Hammershøi, who was a
ceramist
Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take varied forms, including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is a visual art. While ...
and painter. Hammershøi studied drawing from the age of eight with Niels Christian Kierkegaard and Holger Grønvold, as well as painting with
Vilhelm Kyhn, before embarking on studies with Frederik Vermehren and others at the
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts () has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark.
History
The Royal Danish Academy of Portraiture, Sculpture, and Architecture in Cope ...
. From 1883 to 1885, he studied with Peder Severin Krøyer at the Independent Study Schools, then debuted in the
Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition
The Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition (''Charlottenborg Forårsudstilling'') is an annual art exhibition in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
The event is held at the Charlottenborg Exhibition Building (''Kunsthal Charlottenborg'').
Kunsthal Cha ...
in 1885 with ''Portrait of a Young Girl'' (showing his sister, Anna).
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; ; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French people, French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionism, Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially femininity, fe ...
is reported to have admired this painting. Hammershøi married Ida Ilsted in 1891.
Artistic career
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 for his interiors, many of which he painted in Copenhagen at Strandgade 30 (where he lived with his wife from 1898 to 1909, and Strandgade 25 (where they lived from 1913 to 1916). He travelled widely in Europe, finding
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
especially atmospheric in providing locations for his highly understated work, suffused as it was at the time with a foggy, coal-smoke-polluted atmosphere. His work has been described as "
Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...
meets the Camden School".
Hammershøi's wife often appears in his interiors, and like many of his figures, is usually depicted from behind "as if absorbed in something that the viewer cannot share".
Ida is also the model in many similar works by her brother,
Peter Ilsted. Hammershøi and Peter were lifelong friends, business partners, and colleagues. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
held an exhibition of their collective works in 2001.
Technique
Hammershøi's paintings are best described as muted in tone. He refrained from employing bright colours (except in his very early academic works), opting always for a limited palette consisting of greys, as well as desaturated yellows, greens, and other dark hues. 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
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
and in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
(he painted two exteriors of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
between 1905 and 1906) are devoid of people, a quality they share with his landscapes.
Interpreters of the Hammershøi's interior paintings have often noted that their power to affect viewers lies in the unique atmospheres which the artist created.
Critical acclaim
Hammershøi's early works, with their simplicity and recording of the "banality of everyday life", enjoyed critical acclaim. He was sought out by artists and literary figures of the time, among them
Emil Nolde and
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...
, who both remarked on his retiring manner and reluctance to talk.
After a trip to Paris, his work became overly detailed. According to art critic
Souren Melikian, his "painterly skill remained but the magic was lost."
Hammershøi's melancholic vision has now regained its place in the public consciousness. He is now one of the best-known artists in
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...
, and comprehensive retrospectives of his work have been organized by the
Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...
in Paris and the
Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 2008, the
Royal Academy of London hosted the first major exhibition in Britain of Hammershøi's work, ''Vilhelm Hammershøi: The Poetry of Silence''.
Hammershøi's only painting on constant display in Britain is 'Interior' in the National Gallery.
In 1997, Denmark issued a
postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...
in his honour.
BBC documentary
In 2005, Hammershøi's life and oeuvre was featured in a
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
television documentary, ''Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershoi'', with the British comedian and writer
Michael Palin
Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knig ...
. In the programme, Palin, fascinated by Hammershøi, whose pictures he conceived as having a distinct enigmatic coolness and distance about them, sets out to unlock the mysteries and find out about the background of Hammershøi. Palin, wanting to know of his inspirations and the reason for these mystical pictures, started his search in
Hayward Gallery
The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Royal ...
in London, goes to Amsterdam and finally to Copenhagen. At the end of his journey, Palin commented: "There's a tendency now to want to know our artists, to expect them to reveal everything before we can properly judge their work. I think the key to understanding Hammersøi is that he deliberately didn't want us to know him. He was an artist. He made paintings. The rest is silence".
Highest auction price for Danish work

In June 2012, Hammershøi's ''
Ida Reading a Letter'' was auctioned by
Sotheby's
Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
in London for £1,721,250 or DKK 15,747,499, a record for any Danish work of art. Two other paintings by Hammershøi were also sold the same day at Sotheby's for unusually high prices: ''Interior with Two Candles'' was auctioned for DKK 10,110,000 and ''Ida in Interior'' for DKK 6,120,000.
In December 2018, following Christie's New York European Art auction,
The Getty Museum acquired the painting ''
Interior with an Easel, Bredgade 25'' (1912) for $5,037,500.
Exhibitions
* ''Vilhelm Hammershøi: The Poetry of Silence'',
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...
, Sackler Wing of Galleries,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, 28 June–7 September 2008
[ (Note that the online and print versions of this article have different titles).]
* ''Vilhelm Hammershøi: The Poetry of Silence'',
The National Museum of Western Art,
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
, Japan ( – 7 November 2008)
* ''Vilhelm Hammershoi's Paintings at Scandinavia House'',
Scandinavia House, New York
* ''Painting Tranquility: Masterworks by Vilhelm Hammershøi'',
Art Gallery of Ontario
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...
,
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
, Canada, 16 April–3 July 2016
* ''Vilhelm Hammershøi: Light and Silence'',
National Museum in Kraków,
Kraków
, officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...
, Poland, 4 March–8 May 2022
See also
*
Art of Denmark
Danish art is the visual arts produced in Denmark or by Danish artists. It goes back thousands of years with significant artifacts from the 2nd millennium BC, such as the Trundholm sun chariot. For many early periods, it is usually considered a ...
* ''
Dust Motes Dancing in Sunbeams''
References
Further reading
* Vad, Poul (1992). ''Vilhelm Hammershøi and Danish Art at the Turn of the Century.'' New Haven: Yale University Press.
External links
*
Ida Reading a Letter– information on the painting by Hammershøi which made a record price at ''
Sotheby's
Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
''
Hammershøi: the poetry of silence (gallery)at ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''
Hammershoi – World of Interiorsby
Michael Palin
Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knig ...
Hammershoi 2008 exhibitionat the
Royal Academy of London
Hammershoi entryin Denmark's artist database (
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior.
Web browsers have ...
)
Hammershoi.co.uk– prints seller, but biography and image galleries
Hammershoi– a review of Hammershoi's work triggered by an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hammershoi, Vilhelm
Danish portrait painters
Painters from Copenhagen
1864 births
1916 deaths
Burials at Vestre Cemetery, Copenhagen
19th-century Danish painters
Danish male painters
20th-century Danish painters
19th-century Danish male artists
20th-century Danish male artists