Vilhelm Hammershoi (1864-1916 Denmark) --- --- Group of Trees along the Royal Road near Gentofte, Denmark 1892
Vilhelm Hammershoi ranks among the pre-eminent Scandinavian artists from the turn of the twentieth century. At once traditional and avant-garde - maintaining a self-conscious dialogue with the artistic traditions of his homeland while being thoroughly conversant with contemporary European trends
- Hammershoi helped redefine modernism, both in terms of its aesthetic quality and geographic range.
He was first and foremost a painter of interiors - of hushed, near-deserted spaces populated by a solitary, seemingly spellbound figure. Contemplative and hauntingly still, these scenes comprise the majority of his oeuvre and are the works for which the artist is best known.
Landscapes, however, also played a central role in Hammershoi's art. This sheet is a magnificent example of the artist's unique approach to the genre, where strangeness and silence prevail, and space and line defy all expectations. The work is a precise preparatory study for the central
portion of a large-scale painting. . . .Hammershoi worked meticulously on
each individual tree, deftly defining the structure of the trunk and crown, establishing its precise position in relation to the road and imbuing it with a particular personality.
While "Group of Trees" depicts a deserted-looking thoroughfare flanked by trees, the Royal Road was in actual fact one of Copenhagen's busiest arterial roads. Unlike his Nordic contemporaries Hammershoi eschewed Romantic notions of pure nature untouched by civilization and instead transformed populated areas into desolate, barren landscapes seemingly abandoned by humanity. A sense of alienation and disquiet pervades his work.
Despite the low horizon and resulting high sky in this drawing, there seems to be a total absence of air or atmosphere - an emptiness all around. The grouping of trees, suspended in time, is a microcosm of the world, their seriality suggesting infinite expansion. And yet there is a claustrophobic quality to the scene.
Equally unconventional in "Group of Trees" is the distance between the scene and the beholder: no one has ever perceived and painted a Danish landscape that way before. The road is no longer as it traditionally was: a route into the internal space of the picture, a powerful source of connection. Here it runs parallel to the sheet - there is no way in. For Hammershoi, the work of art no longer served to mediate between humans and nature, but rather emphasized the distance between them.
-- notes from the catalogue "Gathered Leaves" --
Vilhelm Hammershoi (1864-1916 Denmark) --- --- Group of Trees along the Royal Road near Gentofte, Denmark 1892
Vilhelm Hammershoi ranks among the pre-eminent Scandinavian artists from the turn of the twentieth century. At once traditional and avant-garde - maintaining a self-conscious dialogue with the artistic traditions of his homeland while being thoroughly conversant with contemporary European trends
- Hammershoi helped redefine modernism, both in terms of its aesthetic quality and geographic range.
He was first and foremost a painter of interiors - of hushed, near-deserted spaces populated by a solitary, seemingly spellbound figure. Contemplative and hauntingly still, these scenes comprise the majority of his oeuvre and are the works for which the artist is best known.
Landscapes, however, also played a central role in Hammershoi's art. This sheet is a magnificent example of the artist's unique approach to the genre, where strangeness and silence prevail, and space and line defy all expectations. The work is a precise preparatory study for the central
portion of a large-scale painting. . . .Hammershoi worked meticulously on
each individual tree, deftly defining the structure of the trunk and crown, establishing its precise position in relation to the road and imbuing it with a particular personality.
While "Group of Trees" depicts a deserted-looking thoroughfare flanked by trees, the Royal Road was in actual fact one of Copenhagen's busiest arterial roads. Unlike his Nordic contemporaries Hammershoi eschewed Romantic notions of pure nature untouched by civilization and instead transformed populated areas into desolate, barren landscapes seemingly abandoned by humanity. A sense of alienation and disquiet pervades his work.
Despite the low horizon and resulting high sky in this drawing, there seems to be a total absence of air or atmosphere - an emptiness all around. The grouping of trees, suspended in time, is a microcosm of the world, their seriality suggesting infinite expansion. And yet there is a claustrophobic quality to the scene.
Equally unconventional in "Group of Trees" is the distance between the scene and the beholder: no one has ever perceived and painted a Danish landscape that way before. The road is no longer as it traditionally was: a route into the internal space of the picture, a powerful source of connection. Here it runs parallel to the sheet - there is no way in. For Hammershoi, the work of art no longer served to mediate between humans and nature, but rather emphasized the distance between them.
-- notes from the catalogue "Gathered Leaves" --