Let Me Paint You Some Silence

"Silence is golden," according to the proverb, but the stillness in the paintings of Vilhelm Hammershøi is distinctly white, charcoal, and every shade of grey in between.  

However, there's nothing dull about the Dane's restricted palette, as we were able to appreciate, not for the first time, in Hammershøi: The Eye that Listens at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. His subject matter -- so often sparsely decorated rooms in which the doors, windows and light sources become focal points -- is mesmerising. 

This picture -- Sunbeams or Sunlight. Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams. Strandgade 30 -- is so very typical. Apparently empty, lacking any subject matter -- just one wall of a room with a door, panelling and a window. Yet you are captivated by the illumination, and the space. Look how Hammershøi has depicted the light coming in through the window and on the frames round the panes. See how it casts a shadow on the jambs and follow the rays that slope down and their bright pattern on the simple grey floor, while through the window you can discern the tiled roof opposite. And of course, the dust. Yes, as the title says, it's a painting of specks of dust. 

Most of the paintings we're highlighting in this post come from the first few years of the 20th century, when Hammershøi and his wife Ida lived on Strandgade in the Christianshavn district of Copenhagen, perhaps the painter's golden, yet still grey, period. He's of the same era as many of the Skagen painters who formed an artists' colony at the northern tip of Jutland; Hammershøi lived from 1864 to 1916, and you can see similar themes in the work of Anna Ancher, recently the subject of a show in Dulwich, though she was much, much more colourful.  

Hammershøi's works from this period are so calm, so detached, and when figures do appear they are often seen from behind so there's no personal contact with the viewer. Below is Ida, who was regularly his model. The plain black dress, her hands firmly holding a tray and her face in shadow make her seem very distant. There's an air of mystery to this picture, as there so often seems to be with Hammershøi; the cropping of the furniture and the objects in the room; it's all very intriguing. 

Ida also features in the next painting: Once more she is seen from behind and preoccupied. Another black dress (with puffed sleeves this time), and she is illuminated again by the light coming from the left. Hammershøi may have been known as the painter of silence, but Ida's pose at the piano and the music on the stand suggest she is playing (and there are a fair few music-linked paintings in this show). The details in this work are so appealing: Just look at the shiny, bulbous dark wooden legs of the piano and the curves of the back of the white chair, one side of which is aligned with one of the deep creases ironed into the tablecloth. A rare pat of colour comes from the butter.

Hammershøi -- like Ancher -- clearly drew inspiration for his work from the masters of the Dutch Golden Age, such as Pieter de Hooch, one of whose own interiors from the Thyssen collection is included in the exhibition to compare and contrast. And, like those Dutch masters, what is apparently a true rendition is not necessarily so; paintings on the walls of the Strandgade apartment are moved around, objects don't always appear in the same place. Just because it looks real doesn't mean it is. And for an updated Dutch genre picture? A woman reading....

We've seen Hammershøi before, of course. He is, without doubt, one of our favourite artists, and it seems we are not alone; our review of a previous exhibition in Paris in 2019 proved a popular post, but this show provides pictures we don't remember seeing before.

And to be honest, we don't actually recall this picture from the Tate. It's the same view as the first painting we featured, but there's a twist. Ida was originally on the left, but the first owner, the pianist Leonard Borwick, a friend of the couple, folded back the canvas to hide her and to create a painting of an empty interior. 

Because you can't get enough of Hammershøi's barren space. Here's more to explore below, with a door opening into another room and beyond that another door, while in the distance a window lets in bright light. Then on the right, a door to a further room, perhaps somewhere for entertaining guests, as the panels are more ornate? It's an odd sensation to find yourself looking so intently at a room and realise you are noticing the different door handles too. And then there are the varnished floorboards reflecting the white of the doors as well as showing where the footfall is. 

So much silence, but very eloquent. 

Finally, here is Hammershøi himself, a self-portrait also in muted grey tones, but with very piercing dark eyes. Behind him and on the right there's one of those typical windows, with a door and a room leading off, giving depth to the empty space and opening out the canvas.

This is from a slightly later period, in 1911, when Hammershøi was renting a house in Sorgenfri, north of Copenhagen. The place name translates as something like free of sorrow, free of care. At first glance, you might think it doesn't quite look that way. But perhaps that muted silence is perfect, after all. 

Practicalities

Hammershøi: The Eye that Listens is on at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid until May 31. It's open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1000 to 1900, with lates on Saturdays until 2300. Full-price tickets, which include the Thyssen's extensive permanent collection and other exhibitions, cost 14 euros, though it's free on Saturday nights after 2100. It's highly advisable to book a timeslot for the Hammershøi exhibition; you can order tickets online here. The quietest time to visit is potentially mid-afternoon, when Spaniards go for lunch. We spent about 75 minutes in this show; it was fairly busy and you may need to be patient to get close to individual paintings. 

The gallery is on Paseo del Prado, on the same main boulevard as the Prado and Madrid's other main art venues. Banco de España is the nearest Metro station. 

Also on in Madrid

Another Scandinavian artist -- a Swede and a close contemporary of Hammershøi -- can be seen at the Mapfre Foundation, just a short walk northwards up the boulevard from the Thyssen. Anders Zorn: Travelling the World, Remembering the Land is on until May 17.

Images

Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916), Sunbeams or Sunlight. Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams. Strandgade 30, 1900. Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen. Photo: © Anders Sune Berg
Vilhelm Hammershøi, Interior, Young Woman Seen from Behind, c. 1904, Randers Kunstmuseum, Randers
Vilhelm Hammershøi, Interior with Woman at the Piano, Strandgade 30, 1901, Private collection

Vilhelm Hammershøi, A Room in the Artist’s Home in Strandgade, Copenhagen, with the Artist’s Wife, 1902, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Interior, Sunlight on the Floor, 1906, Tate, London

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Open Doors, 1905, The David Collection, Copenhagen

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Self-Portrait. The Spurveskjul Cottage at Sorgenfri, North of Copenhagen, 1911, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen