An artist’s viewpoint is
essential with the message it sends. In the 19th century many artists came to
the North, some for inspiration, some out of curiosity and many on scientific
expeditions, sent by kings and explorers to document and “conquer” the “wild
and untouched” north. Historically the North was even described as sterile.
Artists imaged their own version, based on memory, sketches or oral history. The
result is dramatic and engaging, but not always true. Insider perspectives can
help readdress inaccurate perspectives to define a more complete view of the
North.
THE FANTASTIC
How does one portray the aurora borealis, or a dangerously close encounter with a polar bear, with or without first-hand experience? Biard’s Fighting Polar Bears was depicted prior to his expedition to the North and is a showdown of man against nature. His depiction says more about our own fears and fantasies rather than the predators themselves. How did people further south imagine the north, as an island far north with the midnight sun? Artists paved the way, working with imagery without established conventions for creating. Old tales and Norse mythology also informed their art, stories of undead creatures and princes transformed into polar bears. Are these the images that define the North?
Biard was a French painter and explorer who travelled with different expeditions to exotic locations. In reality, polar bears are solitary animals and do not attack in packs, especially not while swimming.
Based on a Norse myth where three suitors visit three sisters disguised as polar bears. Munthe is associated with the Norwegian national romanticism and contributed to building the country's national identity.
Draugen is an evil ghost or spirit of someone who has drowned at sea. Kittelsen is best known for his epic fairytale drawings and is said to be the person who defined how the Norwegian troll looks like.
THE SCIENTISTS
The artists that joined the many expeditions to the North did their best to capture in great detail the nature and culture they witnessed. In most cases they sketched on site, completing artworks upon return to “civilization” in the studio with the aid of sketches and props. Many also let assistants finish their work based on their sketches.
The aurora borealis is difficult to put into words, let alone depict. Sabatier’s pictures of this astronomical phenomenon appear like swirling puffs of light. His lithographs pinpoint the location, date and exact time, down to the minute, behind his observations. Interestingly, both Sabatier and Balke depict the northern lights with a limited palette, in black, light gray and white, without the colors we typically associate with the northern lights – green, pink, blue and violet. Thoralf Holmboe also depicted scenes from the North with a limited pallet, seal hunting and stockfish on wooden racks, inspired by his trip on a hunting expedition to Svalbard.
This print of Sami at their camp by a fjord is part of "Atlas Historique et Pittoresque", published in 1842-1852 as a result of the French scientific Recherche-expedition.
Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks, usually in the northern parts of Norway.
This print of the dramatic Northern coast line is also part of "Atlas Historique et Pittoresque", published in 1842-1852 as a result of the French scientific Recherche-expedition.
THE INSIDERS
How do we define an insider? The North is often the product of a double perspective, an outside one, made of Western images, and an inside one, that of Northern cultures, like the Sámi. Additionally the (art)history is primarily dominated by men. Artists like Betzy Akersloot-Berg and Anna Boberg are not the heroes we most often associated with the North. It is their affinities that Peder Balke and Otto Sinding who discovered the North. It is the white, male artists who discovered the North. The stories of the insiders have typically been ignored. Historically artists traveled to the North by ship along the dramatic coast. Some artists are short stay visitors, others are born here, travel abroad, and return home to create. What do they all have in common? The North enthralled them all – the people, ways of life, the animals, the light and the landscape.
Betzy Akersloot-Berg was a Duch-Norwegian painter, born in Norway. Based in The Netherlands, she travelled to Norway once a year to paint the Norwegian coast from Lindesnes to Nordkapp.
F. R. Schiertz was a Norwegian-German painter and drew for scientific expeditions and architects. This dramatic scene from a northern landscape is typical of his idealized and momentous landscape paintings.
Baade was a Norwegian romanticist, specialized in moonlight paintings with naval motifs from the Norwegian coast.
Here he uses the light to achieve a dramatic effect. The mountain in the background represents a sign of land and hope, and the dark waves implies the doom of the sailors on the sinking ship
Sinding is known as a "Lofoten painter" and is said to have "discovered" Lofoten as a subject of art, even though others had painted Lofoten before him. He did sketches of the landscape and took them back to his atelier in Münich.
Normann was the first artist from Northern Norway to establish himself as a painter and was well known for his picturesque paintings of Norwegian fjords.
A "Trisse" was the cook on fishing boats.
Krohg is considered one of the greatest Norwegian painters, known for naturalistic pictures of everyday life and often the darker aspects of human existence.
Balke is famous for his romantic pictures of Northern Norway. He often used his imagination to create a more dramatic effect, like in this picture – there are no mountains like these in Finnmark.
Balke is also consdered one of the first Norwegian modernists.
Text and selection: Charis Gullickson
