His best works were produced around the beginning of the previous century and his rather melancholic viewpoint enabled him to create simple works that recorded the ordinary and banal existence of everyday circumstances. Muted, gentle and with a limited palette, he is now one of the best known artists of Scandinavia and his work is well recognised the world over.
Contemporary Parisian artist Claude Lazar is currently building a similar international reputation with the same idea as Hammershoi and his "interiors of absences. Almost like "before and after" images, Lazar's paintings verge on the hyper-real with a style similar to Philip Pearlstein's works in the 1970s. Lazar doesn't use the muted almost monochromatic colours of Hammershoi; rather his works vary in colours and hues, but all have a richness of image and a hardness of line that the Dane chose to shy away from. You can see from the works below why he is establishing a reputation and his site is well worth a visit, but for me he remains a poor man's Hammershoi.
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