Hammershøi's Interiors
Vilhelm Hammershøi painted the rooms of his own flat in Copenhagen for more than ten years: grey walls, white doors, light on the floor and, now and then, his wife Ida with her back to us.
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About the series
From 1898 to 1909 he lived at Strandgade 30, an old house in the Christianshavn quarter, and most of his interiors come from there. He moved the furniture around, opened and closed doors and left out almost everything else, so the paintings are mostly about light and empty space. Later he painted the flat at Bredgade 25 in the same way.
His palette is narrow: greys, off-whites, a few muted browns and blacks. Ida, when she appears, is reading, standing at a table or sitting at the piano, always turned away. The National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty all hold his interiors. After his death in 1916 he was half forgotten, until exhibitions in the 1990s brought him back.
These are calm paintings for a bedroom, a study or a room with plain walls. They look best with plenty of space around them.
