DOI Artikel:
Clegg, Elizabeth: The white doors and the glass roof: the interiors of Hammershøi and Spilliaert: Musée d'Orsay, Paris 17.11.1997-01.03.1998, Musée-Galerie de la Seita, Paris 18.12.1997-28.02.1998
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49352#0476
462
ELIZABETH CLEGG
London
The White Doors and The Glass Roof:
The Interiors of Hammersh0i and Spdliaert
Musee d’Orsay, Paris 17.11.1997-01.03.1998*, Musee-Galerie de la Seita,
Paris 18.12.1997-28.02.1998**
Since the early 1980s, the revival of interna-
tional interest in the paintings of the Danish
artist Vilhelm Hammershpi (1864-1916) has
been accompanied by assertions of a perceived
affinity between the interiors with which he madę his
European and American reputation from the late
1890s to around 1914 and those produced in the same
period by a number of otherwise very different artists,
above all a group of ąuirkily Symbolist, even proto-
Surrealist, Belgians - Xavery Mellery (1845-1921),
Georges Le Brun (1873-1914) and Leon Spilliaert
(1881-1946).1 The coincidence, during the winter
of 1997-98, of Parisian exhibitions devoted to
Hammershpi and to the earlier career of Spilliaert,
with respectively 72 and 94 works, among them some
outstanding interiors (ills. 1, 2), offered an excellent
opportunity to assess the validity and the significance
of the most interesting of these comparisons.
* L’Univers poetiąue de Vilhelm Hammersh0i
1864-1916, exh. cat., eds. Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark, Hen-
ri Loyrette and Mikael Wivel, with essays by Robert Ro-
senblum and Poul Vad, and entries by Anne-Birgitte
Fonsmark and Mikael Wivel. 192 pages, 106 illus. Paris
1997.
** Leon Spilliaert: Oeuvres de jeunesse 1900-1918, exh.
cat., ed. Marie-Claire Ades, with essays by Annę
Adriaens-Pannier, Sophie Bronsin, Itzhak Goldberg,
Norbert Hostyn and Xavier Tricot. 192 pages, 145 ills.
Paris 1997.
1 See, for example, the entries on Hammershpi by E.
BRAUN in Northern Light: Realism and Symbolism in
Scandinavian Painting 1880-1910, exh. cat., ed. K.
YARNEDOE, Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, D.C.;
Brooklyn Museum, New York; Minneapolis Institute of
Even without reference to the major monographic
accounts from which the two Paris shows in part
derived,2 those visiting both were almost certain to
become aware of a number of telling parallels in the
situation and preoccupations of Hammershpi and
Spilliaert in the years during which their careers
overlapped. Both, for example, were native to, and
continued to live in, thriving, long-established
northern European Coastal ports with strong royal
connections -respectively, Copenhagen and Ostend -
and retained a deep affection for these cities. Both
evinced a particular interest, consistently reflected in
their work, in some of the morę imposing older
architecture they encountered there: respectively, the
Danish royal castles Christiansborg and Amalienborg
and the stately headąuarters of the Asiatic Company
(all of them 18th century) and the Ostend Galeries
Royales and Kursaal (both of the mid 19th century).
Arts; Góteborgs Konstmuseum, 1982-3; New York 1983,
pp. 122-37, which refer to Le Brun and Mellery; and the
inclusion of an interior by Hammershpi alongside one
each by Le Brun and Mellery and three by Spilliaert in the
„lieux de l’inquietude” section of Paradis perdus:
L’Europe symboliste, exh. cat., ed. J. CLAIR, Musee des
Beaux-Arts, Montreal, 1995; Montreal 1995, pp. 160-1,
with related discussion in the context of „maisons et lieux
hantes”, pp. 130-1.
2 Respectively, P. VAD, Vilhelm Hammershpi and Danish
Art at the Tum of the Century, New Haven and London
1992, translated by K. TINDALL from the original Danish
edition, Harnmersh0i Vaerk og liv, Copenhagen 1988; and
Leon Spilliaert, exh. cat., eds. A. ADRIAENS-PANNIER,
N. HOSTYN, Museum voor Schone Kunst, Ostend;
Museum Het Paleis, The Hague, 1996; Ghent 1996.
ELIZABETH CLEGG
London
The White Doors and The Glass Roof:
The Interiors of Hammersh0i and Spdliaert
Musee d’Orsay, Paris 17.11.1997-01.03.1998*, Musee-Galerie de la Seita,
Paris 18.12.1997-28.02.1998**
Since the early 1980s, the revival of interna-
tional interest in the paintings of the Danish
artist Vilhelm Hammershpi (1864-1916) has
been accompanied by assertions of a perceived
affinity between the interiors with which he madę his
European and American reputation from the late
1890s to around 1914 and those produced in the same
period by a number of otherwise very different artists,
above all a group of ąuirkily Symbolist, even proto-
Surrealist, Belgians - Xavery Mellery (1845-1921),
Georges Le Brun (1873-1914) and Leon Spilliaert
(1881-1946).1 The coincidence, during the winter
of 1997-98, of Parisian exhibitions devoted to
Hammershpi and to the earlier career of Spilliaert,
with respectively 72 and 94 works, among them some
outstanding interiors (ills. 1, 2), offered an excellent
opportunity to assess the validity and the significance
of the most interesting of these comparisons.
* L’Univers poetiąue de Vilhelm Hammersh0i
1864-1916, exh. cat., eds. Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark, Hen-
ri Loyrette and Mikael Wivel, with essays by Robert Ro-
senblum and Poul Vad, and entries by Anne-Birgitte
Fonsmark and Mikael Wivel. 192 pages, 106 illus. Paris
1997.
** Leon Spilliaert: Oeuvres de jeunesse 1900-1918, exh.
cat., ed. Marie-Claire Ades, with essays by Annę
Adriaens-Pannier, Sophie Bronsin, Itzhak Goldberg,
Norbert Hostyn and Xavier Tricot. 192 pages, 145 ills.
Paris 1997.
1 See, for example, the entries on Hammershpi by E.
BRAUN in Northern Light: Realism and Symbolism in
Scandinavian Painting 1880-1910, exh. cat., ed. K.
YARNEDOE, Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, D.C.;
Brooklyn Museum, New York; Minneapolis Institute of
Even without reference to the major monographic
accounts from which the two Paris shows in part
derived,2 those visiting both were almost certain to
become aware of a number of telling parallels in the
situation and preoccupations of Hammershpi and
Spilliaert in the years during which their careers
overlapped. Both, for example, were native to, and
continued to live in, thriving, long-established
northern European Coastal ports with strong royal
connections -respectively, Copenhagen and Ostend -
and retained a deep affection for these cities. Both
evinced a particular interest, consistently reflected in
their work, in some of the morę imposing older
architecture they encountered there: respectively, the
Danish royal castles Christiansborg and Amalienborg
and the stately headąuarters of the Asiatic Company
(all of them 18th century) and the Ostend Galeries
Royales and Kursaal (both of the mid 19th century).
Arts; Góteborgs Konstmuseum, 1982-3; New York 1983,
pp. 122-37, which refer to Le Brun and Mellery; and the
inclusion of an interior by Hammershpi alongside one
each by Le Brun and Mellery and three by Spilliaert in the
„lieux de l’inquietude” section of Paradis perdus:
L’Europe symboliste, exh. cat., ed. J. CLAIR, Musee des
Beaux-Arts, Montreal, 1995; Montreal 1995, pp. 160-1,
with related discussion in the context of „maisons et lieux
hantes”, pp. 130-1.
2 Respectively, P. VAD, Vilhelm Hammershpi and Danish
Art at the Tum of the Century, New Haven and London
1992, translated by K. TINDALL from the original Danish
edition, Harnmersh0i Vaerk og liv, Copenhagen 1988; and
Leon Spilliaert, exh. cat., eds. A. ADRIAENS-PANNIER,
N. HOSTYN, Museum voor Schone Kunst, Ostend;
Museum Het Paleis, The Hague, 1996; Ghent 1996.