Hammershoi

Bourgeois interiors with lattice windows. Doors, tables, paintings on the wall. Women sitting, generally seen from the back, in black, reading, or sewing or playing the piano. Grey, brown, blackish-brown colours, a little soiled. No violent movement, no conversation, no street nor market scene. Felix Krämer, one of the authors of the monography dedicated to Vilhelm Hammershoi resumes the production of this painter by a well found term, «the poetry of silence». Even in his life, Hammershoi, who died in 1916 in Copenhagen at the age of 52, created few waves. His (re)discovery in Europe as of the 980 had the effect of a small bomb, due to the incredible contrast between his protected universe and our contemporary frenetic life. The present catalogue accompanies the exhibition presented at the Royal Academy of London but represents, with 72 commented paintings, a good introduction to his work.

• Hammershoi, collective work, Hazan publishing house, 2008, ISBN : 978-2-7541-0317-6, 160 p., 39 €