theblacksquare:Interior with Young Woman from Behind, 1904 | Oil on canvas | 61 x 50 cm | Vilhelm Ha
theblacksquare:Interior with Young Woman from Behind, 1904 | Oil on canvas | 61 x 50 cm | Vilhelm HammershøiVilhelm Hammershøi, often written in English Vilhelm Hammershoi [15 May 1864 – 13 February 1916] was a Danish painter. He is known for his poetic, low-key portraits and interiors.Hammershøi’s paintings are best described as muted in tone. He refrained from employing bright colors (except in his very early academic works), opting always for a limited palette consisting of greys, as well as desaturated yellows, greens, and other dark hues. His tableaux of figures turned away from the viewer project an air of slight tension and mystery, while his exteriors of grand buildings in Copenhagen and in London [he painted two exteriors of the British Museum between 1905 and 1906] are devoid of people, a quality they share with his landscapes.In 2005, Hammershøi’s life and oeuvre was featured in a BBC television documentary, Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershoi, with the British comedian and writer Michael Palin. In the programme, Palin, fascinated by Hammershøi, whose pictures he conceived as having a distinct enigmatic coolness and distance about them, sets out to unlock the mysteries and find out about the background of Hammershøi. Palin, wanting to know of his inspirations and the reason for these mystical pictures, started his search in Hayward Gallery in London, goes to Amsterdam and finally to Copenhagen. -- source link