Though famous in his (and my) native Denmark, and highly sought after by a small group of collectors worldwide, the artist Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) remains an enigma. Swimming against the Impressionist tide of his times, his paintings of interiors and exteriors recall the classical serenity of Vermeer.  His obsessional – almost forensic - treatment of light turns his self-styled “empty rooms” into powerful stirrings of abstract memory.  I place Hammershøi in his Danish context and try to define why I regard him as one of the West’s greatest painters.

This talk coincides with the 2008 Hammershøi exhibition at the Royal Academy and the related Martin Randall Tour of Copenhagen (June 2008) as well as drawing on my involvement with Michael Palin’s personal exploration for BBC 2 [2004] 

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