Painting Tranquility: Masterworks by Vilhelm Hammershoi From SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark

“Interior in Strandgade, Sunlight on the Floor” (1901)
"One of Denmark’s most celebrated artists, Vilhelm Hammershoi (1864-1916), was known in his day as 'the painter of tranquil rooms.' He worked during an era of great changes in Western art: Around the turn of the 20th century, traditional realism no longer seemed an adequate way to express the myriad revolutionary ideas percolating all over Europe. As viewers may observe in 'Painting Tranquility: Masterworks by Vilhelm Hammershoi From SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark,' a beautiful small exhibition at Scandinavia House, his paintings convey a distinctively modern psychological complexity. But unlike another famous Scandinavian, the Expressionist Edvard Munch, Hammershoi practiced a kind of representational painting dating back to Rembrandt and Vermeer. With their severely muted colors, Hammershoi’s portraits and pictures of women in nearly empty rooms may call to mind the suavely subdued paintings of James McNeill Whistler. ..."
NY Times: Vilhelm Hammershoi’s Paintings at Scandinavia House
Scandinavia House
Vidinfo: Painting Tranquility