It was like meeting an old friend after years apart, seeing this lovely small group of paintings by VILHELM HAMMERSHØI at the Muse Jacquemart-André in Paris this weekend. Here is a detail and the full (cropped) image of “Interior with a vase of flowers” 1910-11. I first saw these works in 1996, as I was setting up my practice and working on small domestic projects. His work seemed to hold for me the essence of what a space for human habitation should be; calm, beautifully lit by daylight, with room for the individual...a place for a beautiful ceramic bowl,for instance. It’s clearly not the avant guard of painting but Hammershøi attains something in his work that is hard to describe, when seen in person, you can feel the light, smell the wax on the furniture, touch the glaze on the ceramic.
#painting #hammershøi #interior #architecture #atmosphere #light #daylight