PARIS.- The Musée Jacquemart-André and Culturespaces are holding an exhibition devoted to the great master of Danish painting, Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864–1916).

For the first time in twenty years, the painter’s mysterious and poetic works will be exhibited in Paris.

An article on Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864–1916) written in 1911 stated that ‘Visiting the artist at his home is like stepping inside one of his paintings’.

The painter chose to represent his daily environment and the members of his inner circle in most of his works.

Taciturn in temperament, he depicted in his canvases a world in his own image, imbued with a disquieting silence. The exhibition invites visitors to discover this mysterious world: by showing the artist’s links with his family and friends, who were also artists, it sheds new light on Hammershøi’s oeuvre.

A retropsective of the master of danish painting
Initially exhibited in Paris at the Petit Palais in 1987 and subsequently in the Musée d’Orsay in 1997, visitors were fascinated by Hammershøi’s paintings representing empty and subtly rendered interiors that sometimes feature a woman whose back faces the viewer, painted in grey and white tones.

The exhibited paintings represent Hammershøi’s entire oeuvre and its mysterious and profound atmosphere. A withdrawn and quiet individual, Hammershøi spent all of his life in a small circle of family and friends, all of whom constantly featured in his paintings: his mother, sister, brother, and brother-in-law all posed for him, as did several close friends. He also painted his wife, Ida, who is often seen from the back in many of the works that have made him famous.

Hammershøi's artistic circle
The Musée Jacquemart-André displays Hammershøi’s art from a fresh perspective by illustrating his links with the artists in his circle. For the first time, this retrospective compares Hammershøi’s works with paintings executed by his brother Svend
Hammershøi, his brother-in-law Peter Ilsted, and his friend Carl Holsøe. This comparative approach highlights their affinities, differences, and the unique genius of Vilhelm Hammershøi, the artist of solitude, silence, and light.

Exceptional loans
Forty works reveal the mysterious and poetic world of the artist. Previously unseen works from the Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr. Danish Art Collection, which are rarely exhibited during the major international retrospectives devoted to Hammershøi’s oeuvre, are being displayed for the first time in France.

The exhibitionalso includes loaned works from major Danish and Swedish museums, such as the Statens Museum for Kunst and the Hirschprungske Samling in Copenhagen, the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, and the Malmö Konstmuseum, as well as the Musée d’Orsay and London’s Tate Gallery, and from private collections. Major works illustrate every aspect of Hammershøi’s oeuvre: his first portraits, nudes, architectural views, landscapes, and the extraordinary interior scenes that have made him so famous.

Curatorship
Jean-Loup Champion, art historian, et Pierre Curie, curator of the musée Jacquemart-André.