VILHELM HAMMERSHØI the Poetry of Silence
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This guide is given out free to teachers and full-time students with an exhibition ticket and ID at the Education Desk and is available to other visitors from the RA Shop at a cost of £3.95 (while stocks last). VILHELM HAMMERSHØI the poetry of silence iii ‘For some time now Vilhelm Hammershöi (b.1864) has had his VILHELM admirers in England. His art is well known nearly all over the world. Last summer in the great International Exhibition at Rome he was one of the HAMMERSHØI few artists who obtained the highest prize of the exhibition. Hammershöi’s discreet choice of colours harmonises well with the old-fashioned type the poetry of silence of room which he usually paints.’ Hammershøi’s entry in the catalogue for an Exhibition of Work by sackler wing of galleries Modern Danish Artists, Public Art Galleries, Brighton, April–July 1912 28 june ‒ 7 september 2008 introduction An Introduction to the Exhibition The exhibition of Danish art at the Brighton Public Art Galleries in 1912 for Teachers and Students was one of a series at this progressive gallery showing modern art from all over Europe. The glowing praise heaped on Vilhelm Hammershøi Written by Helena Bonett (1864–1916) – as an artist ‘well known nearly all over the world’ – may Education Department come as a surprise to us now, when his name is hardly known. This is © Royal Academy of Arts the paradox of Hammershøi. While his work may appear now to be gentle and calm, a lyrical ‘poetry of silence’, for his contemporaries this very silence was provocative and even controversial. It was because of Supported by OAK Foundation Denmark the rejection of Young Girl Sewing (1887; cat. 7) and Bedroom (1890; cat. 10) and Novo Nordisk by the exhibition jury of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts that The Independent Exhibition (Den frie Udstilling) was set up in 1891 by This exhibition has been organised by the Hammershøi’s friends, in opposition to the Academy’s annual exhibition Royal Academy of Arts, London, the National held in the Charlottenborg Palace in Copenhagen. But Hammershøi Museum of Western Art and Nikkei Inc., Tokyo was not part of any group and always maintained his independence, producing work that unsettled not only the establishment but even his friends. No one knew where to place him, and because he could not be fitted into a ‘canon’ of art, he was largely forgotten. Since the 1980s, his work has been rediscovered and has undergone a reappraisal both in Denmark and around the world. front cover Cat. 39 Interior. Young Woman seen from ‘Hammershøi, however, 1904 early life Behind (detail), c. from the very first Randers Kunstmuseum, Randers From the beginning of his life Hammershøi displayed abundant Photo Niels Erik Høybye moment knew how to obtain respect for artistic talent, which his father and particularly his mother, Frederikke, back cover himself among the older encouraged. Hammershøi’s two younger siblings, Anna and Svend, also fellows, both by his Cat. 34 stubborn silence and by supported their brother by posing for him, and Frederikke collected a View of the Old Asiatic Company or, his head strong manner of scrapbook of newspaper clippings relating to his work throughout her The Asiatic Company Buildings (detail), 1902 drawing, which, with its life. From the age of eight, Hammershøi received drawing lessons and Private collection, on deposit at the Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen soft shading, already Photo Pernille Klemp was taught by a variety of artists, including Niels Christian Kierkegaard contained hints of the delicate beauties in his (1806–1882) who was himself taught by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg later, peculiar manner (1783–1853), the foremost artist of the Danish Golden Age. of painting.’ As Denmark moved towards a liberal democracy in the early The artist Emil Hannover fl designed by isambard thomas, london on Hammershøi at the nineteenth century, the country saw a nationalistic ourishing in the printed by tradewinds ltd Royal Danish Academy arts and sciences. This produced the Danish Golden Age (c.1800–50), 1 represented by such artists as Eckersberg, Constantin Hansen (1804–1880) ‘As you perhaps know I go and Christen Købke (1810–1848). In 1879, Hammershøi began his training to Krøyer’s school every day from 8.30 to 4; then I at the Royal Danish Academy where the artists of the Danish Golden Age dash home and eat supper had also trained. In 1883, he also joined the Independent Study Schools and then it’s on to the (De frie Studieskoler), which had been set up the previous year in Academy where I draw 5 30 7 30 opposition to the conservatism of the Academy. Despite their anti- from . to . , and besides that I am studying conservatism, the tutors at the Independent Study Schools, including the French which, however, artist Peder Severin Krøyer (1851–1909), were confused and taken aback by I will be stopping shortly.’ Hammershøi’s painting, Krøyer apparently comparing his figures to Hammershøi in a letter to his elder brother Otto, ‘butter or lard in moonlight’ and ‘foetuses in alcohol’. However, as Krøyer 1883 later remarked to one of the other tutors, ‘I have a pupil who paints most oddly. I do not understand him, but believe he is going to be important and do not try to influence him.’ Cat. 5 Although this portrait of his nineteen-year-old sister Anna was Cat. 5 Hammershøi’s first large-scale painting, it already displays many of the Portrait of a Young Woman. The Artist’s Sister Anna motifs he was to make use of for the rest of his life, such as the white door Hammershøi, 1885 and black dress. The painting was his competition entry for the Academy’s Oil on canvas spring exhibition prize for ‘A female portrait, three-quarter view, lifesize’. 112 × 91.5 cm The Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen The three-quarter-length portrait had been a traditional subject for the Photo © The Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen/DOWIC Fotografi artists of the Danish Golden Age, and Hammershøi may well have seen Købke’s Portrait of the Artist’s Sister, Cecilie Margrethe Petersen, née Købke (1835). However, while Købke’s sister sits in a static pose and looks directly out at the viewer, Anna, in a more animated position, stares beyond us, as though in a dream. Hammershøi’s distinctive, sombre palette also contrasts with the bright colours of the traditional Golden Age portraits. Most importantly, Anna has no occupation. Traditionally, the sitter would be surrounded by objects with their hands occupied in some fashion, providing the potential for a symbolic reading. By removing these details, Hammershøi leaves no aids for interpretation other than Anna’s expressive yet introverted face and hands. Hammershøi did not win the prize for this painting. Karl Madsen (1855–1938), an art critic and friend of Hammershøi at the Academy, wrote that Hammershøi had ‘with this portrait thrown the general public and the academic method of art the gauntlet and placed his conception of what is artistic and beautiful so unequivocally on view as nobody hitherto has dared in this country’. The painting was so provocative that a group of 41 artists associated with the Independent Study Schools signed an open letter to the Academy protesting against the decision not to award Hammershøi the prize. Why do you think Hammershøi’s contemporaries found this painting so provocative? Do you find anything provocative about it now? Why do you think Anna is wearing a black dress? What effect does this have on the composition? 2 3 paris and london artist who had moved to London when he was 21 years old. Hammershøi was interested in many of Whistler’s paintings, such as Arrangement in In June 1890, Hammershøi became engaged to Ida Ilsted (1869–1949), who Grey and Black. Portrait of the Artist’s Mother (1871), which he recreated in was the sister of his friend and fellow Academy student, Peter. They were his own portrait of his mother, The Artist’s Mother, Frederikke Hammershøi married in September 1891 and immediately set off on their honeymoon, (1886). only returning to Denmark in March the next year. In fact, the journey Whistler had also faced some harsh criticism for his individual was less of a honeymoon than a tour of major European artistic centres manner of painting. The art critic John Ruskin (1819‒1900) wrote of and their museums, in which Hammershøi immersed himself. As soon Whistler’s Nocturne in Black and Gold, the Falling Rocket (1875): ‘For Mr. as he and Ida arrived in Paris, for example, Hammershøi went off to paint Whistler’s own sake, no less than for the protection of the purchaser, an Ancient Greek relief in the Louvre (cat. 14). Sir Coutts Lindsay ought not to have admitted works into the gallery Before they arrived in Paris the couple spent three weeks travelling in which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly approached the through Holland and Belgium, visiting Amsterdam, The Hague, aspect of wilful imposture. I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney Rotterdam, Bruges and Antwerp. Hammershøi had previously been impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two on a solo trip to the Netherlands and Belgium in 1887, and travelled hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.’ Whistler extensively in Europe during his lifetime. He was fascinated by Dutch consequently sued the critic for libel. Hammershøi naturally felt an affinity Golden Age artists, such as Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675; fig. 1), with Whistler, who, like him, had been criticised by the establishment.