Hammershøi: The Eye that Listens

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior with the Artist's Wife Seen From Behind, 1901

“I have always thought there was a great deal of beauty in such a room, even without people in it, perhaps precisely when there was no one there.” - Vilhelm  Hammershøi.

It was such an unexpected pleasure to visit Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza museum and discover the added bonus of this current retrospective exhibition on perhaps Denmark's most famous painter Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916). I missed the 2008 Hammershøi The Poetry of Silence retrospective in London at the RA, and only discovered Hammershøi's work through Michael Palin's excellent documentary of the same year, Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershøi, which also plays in the last room of this exhibition. I eventually got to see a handful of Hammershøi's atmospheric paintings on a visit to the Danish capital in 2019 (here), and (here), which gave me a taste of his work in the original, but this was no match for all of the works gathered together here. Vilhelm Hammershøi, was born in Copenhagen in 1864 to an educated bourgeois family. Encouraged from an early age in his artistic leanings, he began taking drawing lessons at eight, then entered the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts at fifteen, before continuing his training in independent studios. Hammershøi's paintings draw obvious resemblances to the works of Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). His unique style is of quiet domestic interior scenes (most from his first floor apartment at Strandgade 30), with a strong sense of atmospheric melancholy and introspection, often depicting empty rooms or spaces inhabited by solitary figures—frequently his sister or his wife—seen from behind or in profile. The paintings are bathed in diffuse light characterised by a palette of rich greys, creamy whites, and earthy browns executed in harmonious ,complementary tones. "I'm utterly convinced that a painting has the best effect in terms of its colour the fewer colours there are" he stated. The silence evoked is deafening and often claustrophobic. Most of the paintings are executed on a small scale but they stop you in your tracks demanding much of your attention and a slower, more involved, contemplative view, the better to take in their nuances, atmosphere and implied psychological dramas. Hammershøi settled on Strandgade, where this apartment became the setting for his most important paintings, in which angles, light rays from intense sunbeams, contrasting shadows, and open or closed doors dominate the compositions setting the mood. Registering the minute differences between these interior scenes is interesting especially when they are placed side-by-side as some are in this exhibition. The difference may be as small as a door left ajar in one painting or a differing arrangement of pictures hung on the wall in another. It's as if the artist is working in series. As well as the apartment settings, sound and, conversely, silence, are themes cited in reference to the titles of Hammershøi exhibitions. The artist was passionate about music and those gifted with a musical talent. Despite the sense of quiet portrayed in the paintings the Hammershøis hosted musical gatherings around the piano, and they counted musicians as well as artists among their inner circle. The artist portrayed this love for music pictorially in the tender portrait of the cellist Henry Bramson engrossed in his instrument (below). Both music and silence are implied in the painting - Interior. The Music Room, Strandgade 30, in which Hammershøi cleverly poses a piano, cello and violin as stand ins, to resemble a portrait of human sitters (also pictured below). The music is implied through the bodies of the instruments but the sense of stillness and silence is all pervading. Hammershøi's use of the figure is key in many of his important works. The main model for these paintings being his wife Ida or his sister. The figures are usually depicted with their backs to the viewer or faces cast in shadow quietly going about their domestic chores, reading, or sitting at the piano. Their presence creates a mysterious narrative. There is a sense of intimacy and intrusion as the figures go about their domestic business appearing to be completely oblivious to the viewer. Hammershøi's use of the figure is just one of the thematic axes focused on in each of the rooms of this exhibition. Others rooms focus on his depictions of urban architecture including a couple of atmospheric paintings of Bloomsbury when he stayed in London for a period in a property overlooking the British Museum. Another room looks at his rural landscapes suffused again with a particular light but still the ever-present sense of stillness. There are also historical artworks included in the exhibition by the artist Pieter de Hooch, added for a sense of comparison. Hammershøi admired the genre scenes of the Dutch Golden Age but replaced the luxurious textiles and pictorial clutter of the genre with his preferred sense of pictorial sparseness and minimalism. There are too works by Hammershøi's contemporaries like James McNeill Whistler from which viewers can see clear influences and draw comparisons. Hammershøi's is a most interesting body of work, There is an all-pervading sense of mystery, and perhaps even a sense of melancholy to his oeuvre. Hammershøi's work encourages a more conscious form of viewing with obvious rewards for the viewer who takes time to engage with the sense of stillness in his works. I'm so happy that the timing of this wonderful exhibition coincided with my visit to Madrid.

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Landscape, Summer, Falster, 1890

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Farmhouse Corner, 1883

James McNeill Whistler - Nocturne: The River at Battersea, 1887

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Self Portrait, 1890

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - From a Bakery Shop, 1888

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Portrait of Ida Isted, Later the Artist's Wife, 1890

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Evening in the Drawing Room. The Artist's Mother and Wife, 1891

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Young Girl with Tuberculosis, 1888

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Portrait of J. F. Willumsen. Study for Five Portraits, 1901

Santiago Rusñol - Erik Satie, 1891 

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Thora Bendix, 1896

Santiago Rusñol - Female Figure, 1894

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Three Young Women, 18965

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Evening in the Drawing Room, 1904

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Portrait of Svend Hammershøi, Study for Evening in the Drawing Room, 1904

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - The Cello Player, Portrait of Henry Bramsen, 1893

Henri Fantin-Latour - The Reading, 1870

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Double Portrait of the Artist and His Wife, 1892

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Portrait of Ida, the Artist's Wife, 1898

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Self-Portrait Seen from Behind, 1898

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Double Portrait, The Artist and his Wife, 1898

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Portrait of Ida, the Artist's Wife Ida Hammershøi, born Ilsted, 1907

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - The Artist's Wife at a Sewing Table,  1897

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior with a Reading Lady,  1911

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - A Room in the Artist's House in Strandgade,  Copenhagen with the Artist's Wife, 1902

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - A Room in the Artist's House in Strandgade,  Copenhagen with the Artist's Wife, 1902

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior from Brodgade, with the Artist's Wife, 1911

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Living Room, 1908

Pieter de Hooch - Interior with a Woman Sewing and a Child, 1662-1668

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior in Louis XVI Style, From the Artist's Home, Rahboks Alle, 1897

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Resting, 1905

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior with Woman at the Piano Strandgade 30, 1901

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior, Maid Setting the Table, 1895

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior with a Woman Sweeping, Strandgade 30, 1908

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior, Young Woman Seen from behind, 1904

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior, with the Artist's Wife Seen from behind, 1901

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Sunny Interior, 1905

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior, Strandgade 30, 1909

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior from the Home of the Artist, 1900

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior, Strandgade 30, 1901

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Open Doors, 1905

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior, The Music Room, Strandgade 30, 1907

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior, An Old Stove, 1888

Xavier Mellery - The Doors, 1888

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Sunshine in the Drawing Room III, 1903

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Amalienborg Square, Copenhagen, 1896

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - From a Farm, Resnæs, 1900

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - The Old Warehouse in Christianshavn, 1909

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - The Buildings of the Asiatic Company, Seen from Sankt Annæ Street, Copenhagen, 1902

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior with Potted Plant on a Card Table, Bredgade 25, 1910-1911

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Living Room, Sunlight Study, 1911

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Living Room, Study in Sunlight, 1906

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Sunbeams or Sunlight, Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams, Strandgade 30, 1900, 1906

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior with a View of an Exterior Gallery, 1903

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior of the Church of Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome, 1902

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Woman before a Mirror, 1908

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior, Sunlight on the Floor, 1908

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - From the British Museum, 1906

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Street in London, Montague Street at the British Museum, 1906

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - View of the Jewish School, London, 1912/1913

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - A Greek Relief in the Louvre, 1891

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Near Fortunen, Jægenborg Deer Park, North of Copenhagen, 1901

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Sun Shower, Lake Gentofte, 1903

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Landscape (Falster), 1890

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Tirsdagsskoven, 1893

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Landscape, View from Lejre, 1905

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Early Spring, 1909

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Three Ships, Christianshavn Canal, 1905

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Søndermarken Park in Winter, 1895-1896

Svend Hammershøi - The Cherry Tree and the Giant Tower at Koldinghus, 1917

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Double Portrait of the Artist and his Wife, Seen through a Mirror, 1911

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - The Balcony Room at Spurveskjul, 1911

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior, Strandgade 25, 1913

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Interior with a Table, Bookcase and Windsor Chair, Standgade 25 1913

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Standing Female Nude, 1909-1910

Vilhelm  Hammershøi - Self-Portrait, The Cottage Spurveskjul at Sorgenfri, North of Copenhagen, 1911

Hammershøi: The Eye that Listens

until 31st May

Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum

Paseo del Prado, 8
28014 Madrid