Vilhelm Hammershøi: Painting as Poetry

Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864–1916) is internationally acclaimed for the interior paintings he produced at Strandgade 30 in Copenhagen, the home he shared with his wife, Ida, from 1898 to 1909. Rendered in a superb range of greys, these quiet rooms also served as the artist’s studio. Ida appears again and again as a favoured motif, often with her back turned towards the viewer.

Taking as its starting point fresh readings of Hammershøi’s figures, interiors, architecture, and landscapes, Vilhelm Hammershøi: Painting as Poetry offers a compelling portrait of an artist who used light to shape his surroundings and open a path into an inner world.

Henrik Wivel draws on his deep knowledge of Hammershøi’s oeuvre and the period in which it was created, bringing in the artistic ideas of Hammershøi’s contemporaries and exploring their continuing resonance today.