The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza is presenting the first major retrospective in Spain devoted to Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916). Ninety oil paintings and drawings by the artist and some of his contemporaries offer a comprehensive overview of the output of a painter who created just over 400 works in his 51 years of existence. Considered one of the most important Danish artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Hammershøi gradually fell into obscurity after the emergence and consolidation of the avant-garde movements. Since the 1980s several exhibitions in Denmark and elsewhere have brought the artist’s work to the attention of a public which, in the case of Spain, has only had the opportunity to see it on a few occasions.

The ambiguity of Hammershøi’s paintings allows for multiple avenues of interpretation, which have been enriched in recent decades by the search for connections with other European artists and by relating the painter to his Danish contemporaries. Viewing Hammershøi’s works in the context of the Museo Thyssen’s collection makes it possible to connect them with those of other masters of the past, such as the 17th-century Dutch painters and the great figures of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The exhibition's subtitle, The eye that listens, alludes to the metaphorical relationship between Hammershøi’s painting, silence, the apparent calm it transmits, and the artist's interest in music. The exhibition addresses this theme and others that run through his work, including the role of his wife Ida Ilsted in his creative process, the artist’s progressive refinement of his domestic interiors and their parallels with his treatment of architecture and landscapes, and Hammershøi’s self-representation as a painter in the final years of his life.

After closing in Madrid, the exhibition will be shown at the Kunsthaus Zürich (Switzerland).

The exhibition catalogue was made possible through the support of the New Carlsberg Foundation.