Sunday Salon: The Enigmatic Work of Vilhelm Hammershoi

A Woman In An Interior

Bedroom 1890

Drawing Room: The Four Copper Prings

Portrait of the Painter's Sister, Anna 1885

In the Bedroom 1896

Interior with Young Man Reading 1898

Interior Court 1905

Sunbeams 1900

Interior Strandgade 1905

Interior with Young Woman From Behind 1904

The Music Room

Interior 1899

Peasant Reading 1888

Danish painter Vilhelm Hemmershoi (1864 - 1916) was born in Copenhagen to a well-to-do merchant family. He studied drawing and painting from the age of eight forward, obviously having shown his talent early.

Admired and successful in his lifetime, he was a painter whose poetic works painted in muted tones, belie their understated nature. There are mysteries to be solved in Hammershoi's paintings, stories to be defined - not that I'm the first to come up with that assessment.

In 2005 a BBC television documentary, Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershoi,  explored the enigmatic work of the painter.

More reading about the artist here at The Guardian

To read an interview with Palin re: his 'obsession' with Hammershoi, please use this link.

Vilhelm Hamershoi - Self-Portrait