Hammershøi lectures at the Frye Art Museum- August 2016

I am very excited to announce I will be teaching a lecture series at the Frye Art Museum this summer on Vilhelm Hammershøi!

The Frye Art Museum is located in Seattle, they show a wide range of art exhibits ranging from the collection of the founders Charles and Emma Frye, to vibrant local art to national and international artists and the Frye is always free.

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Interior With Potted Plant on Card Table, 1910-11, Malmö Konstmuseum, Sweden

 

 

The lecture series I am teaching will tie in with the upcoming exhibit-
July 16–September 25, 2016

Chronicles of Solitude: Masterworks by Vilhelm Hammershøi from SMK—The National Gallery of Denmark

Vilhelm Hammershøi. Interior in Strandgade, Sunlight on the Floor, 1901. Oil on canvas. 18 5/16 x 20 1/2 in. National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, ©SMK Photo.

Hammershøi and His Contemporaries

Lecture with Carol Hendricks

Tuesday, August 2 – Friday, August 5, 2016
9:30 am - 12 pm



This lecture series examines Vilhelm Hammershøi’s many influences in order to put his work into context. The days are divided into Hammershøi’s four main genres: portraits, interior spaces, landscapes, and cityscapes. The course begins with a comparative history of subject matter from Dutch Baroque painters, such as Rembrandt and Vermeer who had an influence upon his style.




The Love Letter, Vermeer, 1669, Rijksmuseum

Portrait of the Artist, ca. 1665, Rembrandt van Rijn,
Kenwood House, 1927

 

 

After examining these influences we will thoroughly discuss the work of Hammershøi, each day will focus on a different genre of the artist.



Ida Reading a Letter,  Hammershøi

The series continues to contemporary Scandinavian painters, such as Swedish painters Anders Zorn and August Strindberg, Norwegians Edvard Munch and Harriet Backer, and Finish painter Askeli Gallen-Kallela.

I would love to have you join me for this lecture series this summer, I am very excited to be discussing all of these fascinating artists and am looking forward to seeing the Vilhelm Hammershøi exhibit at the Frye this summer.

Emma Zorn Reading, Anders Zorn, 1887

The Artist's House, Harriet Backer, 1886

 

On this Date in History, May 26: Birth of Aaron Douglas, Gwendolyn Knight and Philippe de Champaigne

On this date in history: May 26

What happened in the world of Art History on May 26?  It was the birthday of three artists.

Aaron Douglas was born on this day in Topeka, Kansas in 1899 (May 26, 1899 – February 3, 1979).   Douglas was an African-American painter and print maker who was an important artist in the Harlem Renaissance.  After studying at the University of Nebraska and the University of Kansas, he moved to New York City where he worked as an illustrator.  He was known for his modern figurative style of paintings and unique color palate.  Later he moved to Nashville where he was a painting professor at Fisk University.  He taught a the University for over two decades and spent the rest of his life in Nashville.  His work and style had a lasting impression on many artists.

Aaron Douglas, Let My People Go, c-1934-39, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gwendolyn Knight (May 26, 1913 – February 18, 2005) was an American painter who was born in Barbados, moved to America and spent much of her life in Seattle.  Knight studied in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance. She was the wife of painter Jacob Lawrence who was a Professor in the Art Department at the University of Washington.

Knight had a large retrospective when she was nearly 80 years old titled "Never Late for Heaven: The Art of Gwen Knight," at the Tacoma Art Museum in 2003.  The Tacoma Art Museum says this of Knight on their website-

"An expressionistic painter with a strong interest in people, Gwendolyn Knight has developed a fluid sense of design using a brilliant palette of bright greens, reds and blues over the past seventy years. As an artist on one of the federal government’s Depression-era public art projects, Knight met her husband Jacob Lawrence in 1937. They lived in New York City until 1970 when they moved to Seattle. Each maintained their own artistic style, while their humanist interests created a strong intellectual bond. For most of her career Knight painted people who posed for her at home or in various studio settings and recreated scenes from the various neighborhoods in which she lived."

Annunciation, Philippe de Champaigne, 1644, Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Our final artist born this day was Philippe de Champaigne, born in Brussels in 1601 (May 26,1602 – August 12,1674).  He was a Baroque painter who spent the majority of his life in Paris.  He moved to Paris in 1621 to work with the French painter Poussin.  Later de Champaigne became a founding member of the Académie de Peinture et de Sculpture which opened in Paris in 1648.

On this Date in History, May 15: Salon des Refusés, Hammershøi and Edward Hopper

May 15th is a notable date in art history-

On May 15, 1863 an exhibit was created in Paris from the paintings that were rejected by the jurors of the Salon of the French Academy. In that year of the Annual Salon more than half of the works of art, over 2,000, were not selected to be part of the exhibit. Therefore the "Salon des Refusés" was held, giving those artists a chance to exhibit their work.  The idea for this alternative Salon was that of Emperor Napolean III who felt the jurors were too harsh, and this would give the public a chance to decide for themselves.

Manet, The Luncheon in the Grass, 1863, Musee D'Orsay, Paris

 

As Robert Rosenblum wrote in the book 19th-Century Art:

"This so-called Salon des Refusés, however, immediately took on the stature of a counterestablishment manifestation, where artists at war with authority could be seen and where the public could go either to jeer or to enlarge their ideas of what a work of art could be.  The counter-Salon opened two weeks after the official one, on May 15, and immediately attracted hordes of Parisians, who numbered as many as four thousand on a Sunday, when admission was free."*

The Salon des Refusés was a turning point in French 19th century art and included works by Manet, Whistler and Henri Fantin-Latour.

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Interior with Ida Playing the Piano, 1910, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan

Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi was born on this day in Copenhagen (May 15, 1864 - February 13, 1916).  He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 1879 -1884.  Hammershøi painted several subjects including portraits, landscapes and cityscapes, but he is best known for his interior spaces and was called De Stillestuers Maler (The Painter of Tranquil Rooms).  He has also been called the Danish Vermeer as he has been influenced by Dutch Baroque painting.

Edward Hopper, The Nighthawks, 1942, Art Institute of Chicago

On May 15th 1967 American painter Edward Hopper died in New York City (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967). Hopper spent most of his life in New York, studying at the New York School of Art and Design under William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri.  He worked as both an illustrator and painter, creating works in oils and watercolors, as well as making many etchings.  Hopper is best known for his realistic style of painting and portraying contemporary American life, both in urban scenes and landscapes.  He painted throughout his life and died at age 84.  His works have had a big influence on later generations of American artists.

Books on the Salon des Refuses-

The Judgement of Paris by Ross King. 2006

19th-Century Art. by Robert Rosenblum and H.W. Janson. 1984.

Footnote-

*Rosenblum, Robert. and H.W. Janson. 19th-Century Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1984. p. 281.