I went to Oslo in Norway for a day… I loved it. I know it’s very irresponsible from an environmental point of view, adding to ever growing flight tourism and associated pollution, but well… I had many individual-centred justifications for just doing what is possible today which wouldn’t have been possible 20 years ago. The journey from Berlin to Norway is a bit longer than an hour, plus of course the time it takes to and from the airports. Total travel time was around 6 hours, which resulted for me in a day at Oslo from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Main reason for going was the Emil Nolde exposition about which I had read on the Nolde Foundation Seebüll Website. It was announced that there would be around 100 works – watercolours, paintings and drawings. I had been to a small Nolde exposition in Berlin earlier and was very curious to see more original works. I have posted an article about the exhibition visit on my blog for the Watercolour 1 course. It’s a bit unfortunate to split the report about the journey between two different blogs, but this has to do with the OCA regulation that students are not allowed to submit the same material twice. So I decided to associate the Nolde exhibition visit with the watercolour course because learning about Nolde’s watercolours was the main reason to go there. By contrast, the afterwards visit of the National Gallery was motivated by a more general interest which fitted with the approach I take in the Drawing course.
Oslo: View towards Royal Palace / National Gallery
The Oslo National Gallery permanent exhibition is organized chronologically along the development of art, beginning with very early sculptures. The leading idea is to present World/European developments in art and to show how these were reflected in the works of Norwegian artists. The National Gallery also has a huge archive of engravings and prints, some of which are included in the permanent exhibition, stored in large drawers in almost every room. There are originals by Dürer and Picasso, among others… It was a very inspiring and instructive visit and I took quite a few notes and made photographs of the works I referred to. The pictures of works in drawers are distorted due to my placement before the drawer, and the glass reflections are disturbing, but I include them here to have at least a reminder.
Religious motives
In the room devoted to Baroque I came across a large oil painting by flemish painter Dirck van Baburen (1595 – 1624), entitled “Christ among the doctors” (1622). Looking at this painting, I suddenly had a lightbulb moment, realizing that the same Christ whose birth is celebrated at Christmas was the one who died on the cross. This may seem strange because the life of Christ is such a well known story to most people in western culture. But for me, the two episodes (birth and death) existed independently in memory. I was really perplexed by the insight that they were indeed part of the life story of a single person. I think it happened because religious motives have a prominent place in art, and I had seen quite a few depictions of religious scenes on that day.
In particular, I had been impressed by the religious motives in Nolde’s work, some of which were included in the exhibition I had seen that morning. I was especially intrigued by the painting showing how the dead Christ with his red wound marks on feet and hands was held by a group of three people. I found Nolde’s religious paintings very modern and saw them as transporting very ancient stories into modern times by using a modern visual language. Suddenly, the story of the life of Christ came very close to my heart. I hadn’t experienced this before when looking at depictions in a more classical style.
Human figure (Italy, 16-17th century)
In a drawer, I found these two studies of male nude figures by italian artists in the 16th/17th century. I found the positions and the perspective taken very interesting and unusual. Maybe the artists wanted to study the perspectivic shortening of the human figure? I really like the energy and power of these drawings, and how masterly they are made.
Carlo Cignani (1628 – 1719), Reclining male nude (left)
Annibale Carracci (1560 – 1609), Seated male nude (right)
Etchings and woodprints (16th – 17th century)
It was nice to look through the drawers and see original works by Rembrandt and Dürer… I made notes about techniques which I found relevant for drawing. For example, Rembrandt used parallel lines to create shades from light to dark in the etching “Christ at Emmaus”. I found this interesting, because they did not disturb the visual impression. From my own hatching attempts I had come to the conclusion that hatching should follow the object contours, because otherwise it would not support three-dimensionality of objects. This etching showed that parallel hatching works as well. Maybe this is due to the very disciplined approach – the lines are fine and their density is increased in areas of shadow.
By contrast, Albrecht Dürer used hatching lines which followed the spacial orientation of objects, and this results in much less “criss-cross” and a cleaner overall impression in his etchings. He arrives at creating very varied shades of gray through very fine lines in different densities.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1654), Christ at Emmaus, etching
Albrecht Dürer, Melancolia
Albrecht Dürer, St. Jerome in his study
Dürer’s woodcuts are bolder than the etchings due to the different medium, but even here is much differentiation in tone in addition to much pictorial detail. The sense of space is supported by depicting the objects in the foreground very large, and becoming incresingly smaller and less detailed in the background. I recognize the principles suggested in the drawing course materials on landscape drawing.
Albrecht Dürer, Visitation (Life of the virgin), woodcut
Albrecht Dürer, Christ taking leave of his mother (Life of the virgin), woodcut
Norwegian landscape painting
The exhibition presented works of Johan Christian Dahl (1788 – 1857), who is seen as the founder of Norwegian landscape painting. One of his pupils was Thomas Fearnley (1802 – 1842), whose oil painting “The Labro Falls at Kongsberg” was presented. I very much liked how Fearnley had painted the clouds, their foggy nature which plays around the contour lines of the mountains in the background.
Looking inside the drawers of that room, I found beautiful watercolours and drawings of landscapes by Dahl and Fearnley. Dahl’s watercolour looks very pure, nothing superfluous in it. It reminds me of the very classical style of Claude Lorrain around 200 years earlier. The two landscape drawings by Fearnley impressed me by their freshness. They are almost 200 years old but to me, they could have been drawn by an artist living today.
Thomas Fearnley (1837) The Labro Falls at Kongsberg
Johan Christian Dahl (1820), View of the bay of Naples
Thomas Fearnley (1835), Kleine Scheideck (Landscape in the Alps)
Thomas Fearnley (1834), Landscape Olevano
I noted the name Lars Hertervig (1830 – 1902) but unfortunately made no picture so I’m not quite sure what I had in mind. I’ll include him here just as a reminder for future research.
Another Watercolour which I liked very much was the “Decaying forest” (1852) by August Cappelen (1827 – 1852). It depicts a topic which fascinates me – when I’m walking through a forest, I’ll always be attracted by fallen trees, broken branches etc. And then I like how the various tonal shades have been built up. To the middle right there are tiny light leaves on a dark background. They seem to have been painted with a light, but opaque colour. I’ve encountered the problem in my own landscape drawings, and here’s the painterly solution to the problem of constant changes between dark figure on light ground, and vice versa.
Then I passed by a large oil painting which fascinated me. It was made by Gustav Adolf Fjaestad (1868 – 1948), entitled “Spring Flood” (1909). I hadn’t expected such a degree of photorealism in how the movement and light reflections on the water surface were depicted. The painting seems to show a lake or pond with its banks. The banks are painted much less detailed or accurate than a photo would be. I spent quite a bit of time in front of the painting, looking from very close to understand how the water was made.
It is the date of the painting which makes for much of the surprise, because I wouldn’t have expected a painting from the beginning of the 20th century to look as if it had been made after a photograph. If the painter had not used a photograph, he must have had an enormous observational talent.
Norwegian Mood Painting (1890s)
Following the explanatory board on the wall, I understood the paintings in this room as reflecting a return of the artists to romantic ideals, with increasing interest in the emotional content of what was around them. This departure from realism may reflect a rebound from the great emphasis on scientific, naturalistic and sober approaches of the Renaissance.
I took notes on three oil paintings. The first was painted by August Eiebakke (1867 – 1938), entitled “Laying the table”. I don’t know whether the artist intended this, but to me the painting conveys an atmoshphere of tension and scrutiny – by the way the people sitting close to the window are observing the woman laying the table. Somehow it revives childhood memories of family disputes at the table, so it may well be a personal thing!
Then there was a painting called “Summer night” (1886) painted by Kitty Kielland (1843 – 1914). I had another lightbulb moment. The Norwegian painter depicted a night in summer – and Norwegian summer nights are characterized by light, not darkness! So what the painting shows is a landscape with a pond, trees and a background mountain line in the light of what I’d expect to be late afternoon. The topic of nights that are not dark should be quite common for northern artists, but I had never come across it before. This may be the result of my tendency to study German, British or French artists. I missed out something interesting!
Another summer night painting was presented, by Harad Sohlberg (1869 – 1935). It shows a balcony with a view over a lake, and an impressive sky in blue and green to white colours. I do not really like the way it is painted. Maybe there’s too much emphasis on detail for my taste, for example in the way the laid table is depicted. But the intense colouring of the sky was very impressive in the original work, and the actual view must have been breathtaking.
Early 20th century
An entire room was devoted to paintings by Edvard Munch (1863 – 1944). I like some of his paintings, but overall he’s not a painter whose work warms my heart. I feel too much misery, depression and symbolism. When I prepared my journey to Oslo, I read about the Munch Museum there. Unfortunately it was closed to the public for two weeks until November. If I return to Oslo one day, I’ll certainly go there to study Munch’s works.
I liked the paintings of Ludvig Karsten (1876 – 1926), “At the mirror” (1914) and “The blue kitchen” (1913). In the strong colouring and bold approach I recognize the upcoming European Expressionism, showing that Norwegian painters were integrated in a broader context and exchange between artists across countries.
In the painting by Axel Revold (1887 – 1962) entitled “Atelier Paris” (1919/20) the influence of Cubism is apparent. Then there was the painting “Railway Station” (1932) by Alf Rolfsen (1895 – 1979). Somehow this painting evoked a feeling of “Zeitgeist” of the times before World War II. There seems to be some mysterious commonality in the paintings dating from the 1920 to 1930s which makes them localizable in time for me. It’s a feeling of unrest, irritation, search and departure. The railway station as a motive perfectly captures this atmosphere.
From the other works I made notes on two paitings by French artists: The “Nature morte” (1910-14) by Maurice de Vlaminck (1876 – 1958), and “Bronze Figure” (1908) by Henry Matisse (1869 – 1954). The painting by de Vlaminck also looks like influenced by Cubism, and I like it a lot for its choice of colours. The painting by Matisse impressed me because my perception of Matisse had been dominated by his drawings and mastery of line, like those I presented in my blog post about this artist. It surprised me to see a painting that conveyed such a massiveness – a strong contrast to the lightness and reductionism of his drawings. Actually I don’t find this painting very successful because of the dark vase in the foreground, which I find too dark and disturbing the view on the figure.
20th century woodcuts and other prints
Again wonderful discoveries in the drawer of that room… A large woodcut by German painter and printmaker Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884 – 1976) entitled “Russian Landscape with Water Carrier” (1919). I was very impressed to see such a work as an original. The strong black and white contrasts are very powerful. Despite depicting very massive objects like houses, trees and a mill or press, the entire scene seems to be moving and dancing wildly. I think this is the result of the many changes in baseline orientation of the objects, which break of classical perspective rules.
Another woodcut I liked a lot was the “Cellist” (1918) by German painter and printmaker Max Pechstein (1881 – 1955), also member of the Expressionist group “Die Brücke”. In the woodcut there’s a very successful distribution of black and white areas, and I especially like the play with black lines on white ground vs white lines on black ground.
Finally, there were prints by Emil Nolde and Pablo Picasso. I have no background information beyond their creation years. Emil Nolde’s “Man and young woman” (1918) is a print, but I found it very painterly and sensitive in its lines. What a contrast to the almost brutal visual effects of the woodcuts. There were prints by Picasso from several different periods. The oldest I took notes about was “Femme nue devant une statue” (1931), an etching. I found the similarity to Matisse’s drawings quite striking.
Emil Nolde (1918) Man and young woman
Pablo Picasso (1931) Femme nue devant une statue
Then I remarked two aquatinta prints dating from 1968 which showed erotic motives. While I first thought this was mainly attribuable to Picasso’s personality, I later realized that they were created in the years of the swinging sixties and the sexual revolution, so they too may represent some sort of Zeitgeist.
I found these works very interesting by their technique. Picasso seemed to have employed a mixed method approach, with water-repellent as well as water-soluble materials. I conclude this from the irregular distribution of paint on the support.
Pablo Picasso (1968) Celestine, Maja et deux gentilhommes
Pablo Picasso (1968) Veux peintre rembranesque peignant des bacchantes
For the final one I selected I can’t guess the technique. It is probably an etching, since the lines are quite fine. The sexualized motive captures the viewers attention, but beyond this there’s also great mastery in how Picasso created contrasting areas of pure black and white, and played with white lines on black ground vs black lines on white ground.
Pablo Picasso (1968) Peintre peignant la nuque de son jeune modèle
Contemporary art
The last room of the National Gallery’s permanent exhibition was devoted to contemporary art. My favourite was a three-dimensional mixed-material picture by Rolf Nesch (1893 – 1975) entitled “On the beach” (1940). It had been a discovery at second sight – I barely noticed it when I initially walked by, but then looking for a second time, I found it very interesting due to the strong spatial effects and the unusual materials employed. It had a very modern and experimental appeal to me. It is only now that I realize that this work was almost 30 years older than Picasso’s aquatinta prints.
That was the end of my visit to the Oslo National Gallery. I was exhausted, but also very inspired by the great variety of works I had seen. I briefly returned to the Nolde exhibition on the first floor for a last look, and then went outside to take a walk, direction Akershus Fortress.
Akershus Fortress
Akershus fortress is the ancient Wiking fortress at the Oslo harbour. I had taken some materials with me to draw there. It’s quite an impressive place. The last picture shows the view I had selected for my drawing presented in the “Plotting space” blog post.
Concluding reflections
The trip to Oslo was very exciting and I have seen much more than actually digestible in a single day. So I see this post as an introduction to the many artists whose works I have included. I hope to study at least some of them in greater depth later on. From what I have seen lately, I feel very attracted and close to Expressionism, another topic I’d like to get back to more thoroughly.
I liked Oslo a lot, too!
References
Emil Nolde Exhibition “In search of the authentic”, Oslo 2012-13, Norway
http://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/?module=EventCalendar;action=Event.publicOpen;ID=778;template=exhibitionView_en
Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
http://www.nolde-stiftung.de/en/24/startseite-portal.html
National Gallery, Oslo, Norway (part of the National Museum)
http://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/
My Watercolour 1 blog post about the Emil Nolde exhibition in Oslo
http://ocawatercolour1.patricia-karsten.de/?p=295
My Drawing 1 blog post: Landscape drawing. Plotting space through composition and structure
http://ocadrawing1.patricia-karsten.de/?p=1861
My Drawing 1 blog post about drawings by Henry Matisse
http://ocadrawing1.patricia-karsten.de/?p=1694