I am a friend of Hammershoi. He's my favourite painter.

I've never heard of Hammershoi until now. Thank you once again Michael!

Note: how the cinematography echoes Hammershoi's work...nice!

Breathtaking and hauntingly beautiful.

Every documentary Michael makes is great. What a pleasant middle of the night watch.

It's not about the people in Hammershoi's work, it's about angles and geometric shapes and how the light is interwoven into the patterns. That is what drew his attention. That is evident in all his work.

I am interviewed by Michael Palin, from 4' 30' to about 6' 30" - since I live now in the flat where Hammershoi lived in London in 1905/6

I have always loved Michael. He was my favorite "Python." I can't help but imagine him asking to have an "argument" with some of the people he meets along his journeys. Such a lovely and intelligent man. Thank you Michael for introducing me to Hammershoi. This doc is one of my favorite from BBC Four. Incredibly well done. I love how they matched the lightening to Hammershoi's paintings. My favorite thing about the internet are the lovely surprises we find.

Hammershoi painted a series of paintings of the same location (search and you will find). The light from back.... is from a glass window in a balcony with a door leading to it. In this painting it is evident how the door is hung (opens away from incoming light). The table will partially obstruct entry from either doors.... Freud at work.... may be. Social distancing.... may be. We love you Mr Palin, in all of your avatars.

Thanks Michael.

I believe that having some mystery left to an artist makes the art more intriguing.

Hammershoi has reached a soul on the the wind swept, snowy plains of Montana today. Thank you.

I wish Michael Palin would live forever, so that he could keep on making these programs indefinitely. Yes, I'm selfish. ;)

I love this artist! I totally understand him.

Michael Palin has such an appealing style of communication, a very gifted and likable chap

I love the little nonchalant nude walk they take, with scarves & boots! Wonderful how they threw in that nod to the artist and his brother! A light-hearted touch! Michael Palin is a gem!

I’ve loved Michael Palin’s shows since watching around the world in 80 days and “pole to pole” in the early 90s as a kid.

I think it’s the the introversion and conservatism of Vermeer’s work that captured Hammershøi’s creative mind. It was mentioned that his wife was very shy and quiet and i think he saw beauty in that. He loved painting the hidden beauties that are overlooked.

His paintings are amazing and I think they a beautiful stillness about them with the figure with her back to us. I think the intention is for us to take in and absorb a moment in time that has been caught in a painting otherwise would’ve been lost to time. The paintings are beautiful, mysterious, showing us the eternal rhythm of time .

There seems a connection between so many works that evoke a sense of stillness. Hopper, A Wyeth, Japanese architecture, Hammershoi, Frank Lloyd Wright. Silence is the connection.

I love Hammershoi's work and I'm glad that Michael Palin has brought it to a larger public. For me, painting is a kind of visual love. I think Hammershoi loved Ida and was always reaching out to her, even when her back was turned, maybe especially when her back was turned.

I stumbled on this doc about a painter I had never heard of. Wow, I am so glad that I did. I Love his work! Thank you for educating me

It's ironic that Palin is looking for the darkness in Hammershoi, who is known as a painter of light. Hammershoi probably understood that if you put a human face in a painting, it steals the attention from everything else in the frame. A turned back adds a human interest but it doesn't command the full attention of the beholder. Thereby you get a calm and balanced picture. Vermeer did a similar thing with small faces partially turning away.

Having just discovered the intriguing Hammershoi myself, I was thrilled to know that Michael Palin made a film about him! Many thanks for posting this. Palin's various documentaries and travelogues are consistently superb. John Cleese ( doubtless accurately ) called his friend the only "normal" member of the Python group, and this really comes through. He's genuine and sincere and interested and boasts not an ounce of affectation - always a pleasure to watch.

It's wonderful how a well-produced documentary can enable one to have a, albeit small understanding, of a person or subject matter that one knew nothing about prior to viewing.

Excellent documentary on a great, underrated artist.

I’m way too young to be in love with Michael Palin, but the more documentaries of his I watch, the more charming he becomes. 😍

Splendid documentary on an unheard of artist. Thank you and “Michael Pylon” for this. A very new friend of Hammershoi.

Sign me up to The Friends of Hammershoi! So very beautifully done.

His work brings to mind the coolness and alienation of Hopper.

What a joy to discover this wonderful artist.

What kind of person thumbs down Micheal Palin 🤔 it really must take all kinds. Loved it 😍

I am a friend and admirer of Hammershoi's works. His paintings are ethereal and mystical Works that dont need bright colours to express his need to be subtle and interior There are certain mentalities who are like that and he paints for us. I adore his works

Thank you. Quality programming.

What a delightful and edifying video. My limited knowledge of art history has been expanded. Lovely works.

He had a different perspective. Super, clean, simple, quiet.

Long a Hammershoi fan, it was a joy for me to discover this revealing and intriguing exploration of his life and work. Michael Palin is sensitive, engaging and personable, and researcher Lotte Kjeldsen is captivating and hauntingly charming. Thank you for a magical and revelatory presentation.

I love Palin. So intelligent and lively. :) I'm very moved by this documentary and artist.

What a gift! I had not heard of Hammershoi…. I’m intrigued, and what a gift Michael Pallin is to us all!

Thanks for putting this on here. It's intriguing.

Fantastic! Michael Palin is such a cultured and knowledgable person. When he shares his findings, you are left with a sense of wonder.

It is videos like this that make me love KZfaq. Discovering an artist who has been overlooked and now gets the attention he deserved.

Fascinating!

It must be magnificent to actually visit the rooms as painted.....like placing yourself inside the painting. Wonderful!

Just discovered this - I love Hammerjoi’s work and Michael Palin - this a pleasant discovery to be watched again.

It was after a repeat of this programme last week on TV (BBC4 May 2024) that I ordered a book on Hammershoi as I was so enamoured by his work. Thank you, Michael, for introducing me to this wonderful painter.

Oh...this is so sooo magnificent👏👏👏This must be deeply loved. Bravo

This timetravel in Hammershøi's footsteps, couldn't possibly be done in a better way . . . . Thank you Michael!

To know so much more about Hammershoi from this fascinating programme described by Michael who, obviously, feels so much for the artist. We must feel very grateful to him. Would that there could be other Palins with knowledge of other artists to produce other documentaries.

spectacular paintings by hammershoi! and i adore michael palin-his programs for the bbc 4 are sensational.

Enchanting music, wonderful artist...and, of course, the man Michael himself!

I recall a friend saying, after splitting with his girlfriend of 6 years, that when he first saw her he fell in love with the back of her head. To me that's what these pictures represent, a pure and lasting love. He doesn't need to see her face to portray her as loved, it shines as clear as his depiction of the light around her. Stunning.

you are the best, Michael...

Thank you very much for posting this. What a fascinating and underrated painter.

I think Hammerhøi's painting tell us who he was. He was looking for those quiet moments in everyday life, that is happiness for the introverted. Things doesn't have to be grand to be beautiful. As for Ida having her back turned. - There is something special in looking at the one you love, waiting for her to turn around and (hopefully) smile at you.

Wonderful painting. Speaks volumes in a soft voice.

How wonderful. One doesn't really need to guess, but given his wife's modesty, it seems like a compromise they reached: he wanted to paint her very much, and she wanted very much not to be put on display for the world. Lovely.

Thank you, Michael.

What a wonderful series.

Lovely, gentle documentary.

The cameraman’s lighting on Lotta at 42:00 onwards is perfect and no doubt Palin was very happy with that.

Love Michael and this broadcast. Lotte Kjeldsen of Hirschsprung is lovely.

Thanks for having uploaded one of the most interesting and fascinating Art Documentaries I've ever watched !!!!!

I honestly could not explain how much I have enjoyed this video with Michael Palin As we began traveling across Europe from England to Holland. And with many other countries, in between. How we have studied different paintings and expressions of the rod iron fencing the Palaces and the castles, but you know it is quite intriguing of how she faces the wall and always we see is the back of her neck with a partial open doors as Michael has said many times in his video. I'm going to personally investigate the many paintings of that interesting flat that they lived in with so many paintings he has created so to the individual that uploaded this video. I would like to personally thank you because I've enjoyed this airlock of Bill helm the artist extensively thank you

Beautifully done documentary Michael...the first i have heard of this artist.. absolutely amazing...did anyone else catch their breath when the edge of the folded painting was shown displaying the lady? Wonderful.

Danke vielmals für diesen wunderbaren Film über einen wunderbaren Maler.

It's all interiors, isn't it? Me, inside my head, eyes gazing out, sitting in my kitchen looking into my computer screen at a video of a room somewhere in Copenhagen, seeing a painting of a portion of a corner with a window and wall. I feel as if I could look through that window and, if I could focus enough, see myself in my kitchen.

This was truly beautiful and poignant. Hammershoi's artworks are so emotional that they move me to tears.

Extraordinary. Outstanding in every way. Thanks!

Thank you, Michael Palin to this wonderful movie about great Art.

His paintings are like the zen state of meditation.

This is a documentary on the edge of intriguing. I'm sure they never heard of each other, but, except for the very subdued colors, Hammershoi seems to have something in common with the American Edward Hopper: the simplification of figures and features, the use of architectural elements as the basis of composition, and the isolated figures that give a feeling of loneliness, even alienation.

Wow. He had me from hello. Thank you for this sincere, intimate search for and introduction to Hammershoi.

Fascinating and informative, in the quiet understated way that Michael Palin does so well - brilliant !

It's amazing to me, though, that Michael Palin doesn't spot that the thing Hammershøj paints isn't the rooms or the landscape or the people, but the light! And that's why all Danes love his paintings, we immediately recognise the light!

What wonderful evocative music to accompany such an interesting and informative film.

This was wonderful. I didn't know this painter before watching. His work gives me such an inner feeling of peace. Just lovely.

I am ashamed to say I did not know of this artist till I came upon this. I am now a friend of Hamershoi thanks to this upload. Thank you an amazing journey that locked time and space together....lovely

Two for the price of one: I came because I enjoy Michael Palin and left enjoying Palin and an artist I’d never heard of, Hammershoi.

So glad to stumble upon this doc. Have loved H's work for years - surprised that I missed the doc first time around.

Excellent. Palin does this so well. Most presenters irritate me...but he is un-intrusive.

This one of the best art videos I have watched. Sir Michael does his usual outstanding presentation. And the music was very complementary. The photography is excellent-especially the cello and piano scene. Thank you, Michael

His paintings seem very contemplative.

'He was a quiet , shy man, after painting the nudes he had to like down after' This really made me chuckle, wonderful documentary on a great artist with some classic michael palin gentle comedy

What a lovely program. And so well made, with Palin as the genuinely interested guide. And all those pleasant, beautiful people, in London, Holland and Denmark. A great painter discovered, indeed re-discovered. A real eye-opener. Thank you, Marja.

His program about Artemisia Gentileschi is being show on British tv today.

I am surprised that Michael Palin does not mention the light, particularly in the interiors. It is not grey, at closer inspection, but a rich palette of greys or whites made luminescent with their complements and near complements. His closeness to Vermeer (whose walls are not just white either) is obvious, but Hammershoi unclutters them, ridding them of fabrics and objects, to allow the light flooding and dimming the spaces. He is also interested in the geometric arrangements of rectangles, walls, doors, windows, creating almost abstract compositions. This is also what he took from Whistler. Of course, being a Danish painter, he would not paint the sun-spun light of France like his Impressionist contemporaries, but the clear, crisp light you only find in the north.

Very tastefully done, visually rich and understated, like the artist who I didn't know of before. Thank you Michael and BBC !

34:22 when he said "pining" my mind immediatly went to "the fjords?". oh my i guess i've been watching too many sketches. lovely documentary, though, i didn't know about hammershoi but now i'm fascinated!

I am a friend of Hammershoi. I saw his work in National Gallery and fell in love from the first sight. He's my favourite painter.

This was good. Palin does a good job with the subject and inspires interest. I was waiting for him to come off the bike in NL.... " May 17th. Fell of the bike in Delft. The pump got caught in my trouser leg and my kroket was badly crushed".

Palin’s presentation and conclusion is meticulous. His narration is so engaging. ❤️ May 19, 2020

Thoroughly enjoyable. Loved every moment. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for this lovely and interesting work. I love Hammershøy.

Continuing from 28:20, goes to show that the art establishment deserves as little respect now as it did back then. Michael Palin, the famous Python has enlightened me more than any art history class ever will.

Never saw this before... interesting seeing Palin as an investigator as well as a traveler

To think the same man sang a terrific Lumber Jack song...after trying to exchange a dead Norwegian Blue (beautiful plumage!) for a slug... Great documentary!

These paintings ask us (gently) to reassess our relationship with mystery. That's enough for me.

No gigantic colorful paintings or larger then life figures. Just beautifully rendered quiet contemplation of subtle figures and the play of a naturdl light. A new fan of the artist and a great documentary to let us see a glimpse only a glimpse of the artist himself

I love this documentary. It enlightened me on another painter's life that I didn't know about. I was also taken aback when Palin and the professor walked on the beach naked (I hope I wasn't wrong). This is worth the watch ❤️