The remarkable "Poetry of Silence" exhibition, June - September 2008

19/05/2008

 The Royal Academy of Arts will be holding a haunting exhibition this June called "The Poetry of Silence", featuring work by the first Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) selected from museums and private collections in Europe, the United States and Japan.

In the course of the last 25 years, Hammershøi has been rediscovered as one of the most outstanding and original artists of his time. 

Major exhibitions of his work in Paris, Hamburg and New York during the last decade testify to the strong international appeal of this central figure of Danish art.  His most compelling works are his quiet, haunting interiors, their emptiness disturbed only occasionally by the presence of a solitary, graceful figure - often the artist’s wife. Painted within a small tonal range of greys, these sparsely-furnished rooms exude an almost hypnotic quietude, disturbing emptiness and sense of peaceful melancholic introspection.

The exhibition will also include Hammershøi’s arresting portraits, landscapes and deserted, urban spaces in his home town of Copenhagen and in London, recording the sombre light of overcast winter days where time seems to have stood still.

During his lifetime Hammershøi was compared to artists such as Eugène Carrière, Fernand Khnopff and, most importantly, James McNeill Whistler with whom his paintings share both a limited palette and a severe simplification of form and composition.

The Poetry of Silence is open to the public from Saturday 28th June - Sunday 7th September 2008, 10am - 6pm daily (last admission 5.30pm) at the Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD. Admission is £8 full price, £7 registered disabled and 60 + years. Children under 7 admitted free. To book tickets in advance call 0870 848 8484 or visit

Relevant links

• Royal Academy (Opens a new window)