Looking for something?

Tap outside or press close

InspirationArt & Culture

Painting Norway: Beloved artworks of Norway by Nikolai Astrup

Nikolai Astrup is one of Norway’s most renowned and beloved artists, known for his wild and lush landscapes and depictions of traditional life in his home country. Now, for the first time ever, his work will be presented in a major exhibition in London at the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Written By:
A figure in red tends flowering trees in a lush valley garden, with mountains, a lake and traditional buildings nestled in a verdant Norwegian landscape under a cloudy sky

Born in Bremanger, Nordfjord in 1880, Astrup's family moved shortly thereafter to Ålhus in Jølster, where his father was a priest. His relationship with his father was marked at times by opposition and conflict, most likely because Nikolai could not quite accept the strict form of Christianity practiced at home. What's more, his wish to become an artist went against his family’s expectations.

As an artist and bohemian, he stood out in the conventional rural village where he grew up, but he remained in Jølster for most of his life, and it was here that he found the motifs for nearly all of his paintings. Throughout his entire artistic career he focused on the same landscapes and locations and peopled them with the same human types. He imbued the landscapes with mysticism and an enigmatic symbolic content.

Astrup’s paintings can be seen as a serial treatment of the seasons, given how he depicts the constant and enduring aspects of existence; the little garden with fruit trees and the small vegetable patch, the lake, the familiar mountains, the forest and the fields. These he depicts under constantly changing atmospheric conditions – a drizzling autumn morning, a spring thaw, a cold winter day or a mild and soothing summer night.

Although Astrup settled in rural Norway, far from established art circles, he was not self-taught. He undertook several study trips and was familiar with contemporary Norwegian and European art. At 19 years old he began studying at Harriet Backer’s popular art school in Kristiania, Oslo. Later, Backer would speak of him as one of her most prominent pupils: “I allowed him to work in the direction he wanted, as I understood he was the true genius of the school.” Some years later Christian Krohg taught Astrup at the Academie Colarossi in Paris. Krohg also praised the young artist, saying: “When I speak of Mr. Nicolai Astrup as an artist, it cannot be the way an older artist speaks of a young artist as a “beginner”. Mr. Astrup is in no way a beginner even though he has been painting for a very short time. His unique talent has brought him past the first phase of development, a period where most people stay for at least ten years.”

One of the most renowned Norwegian artists, Astrup's work transforms the rugged Norwegian landscape into a mythical, living entity. Exploring the luscious, colourful paintings and radical innovation in printmaking that defined the Norwegian artist's career, the exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery will bring over 90 oil paintings and prints, including works from private collections never exhibited before, to London. Find out more at www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk.

Three figures stand by a wooden fence on a hillside overlooking a lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains, with blooming fruit trees and rural buildings nestled in the verdant valley below
A group of figures gathered in a lush garden beneath trees, with a woman in a white patterned dress reaching toward the foliage on the right
Tall birch and conifer trees frame a forest scene with figures in traditional dress gathered among wild flowers and undergrowth in Nikolai Astrup's painting
Nikolai Astrup's painting of a fjord valley landscape with mountains, where figures gather around a large bonfire with yellow flames and white smoke rising into a blue sky with white clouds
A blossoming tree with pink flowers stands in a rural mountain village garden with traditional wooden houses, mountains and clouds in the background.
A man and woman embrace in a rustic wooden barn interior with several cows standing in stalls along a central passage lit by a small window
A white wooden house with a figure standing at the door overlooks a lush green garden with a stream, trees and snow-capped mountains beyond
A white church with a red roof nestles in a verdant valley surrounded by dramatic mountains under a stormy sky, a typical Nikolai Astrup motif from rural Jølster
Alpine valley with snow-capped mountains, traditional wooden houses and yellow wildflowers in the foreground in this Nikolai Astrup landscape painting
A white church with a red spire nestles among cypress trees and traditional houses on a hillside overlooking a river, with lush green mountains behind
Traditional Norwegian mill with large wooden wheel beside a stream, surrounded by thatched buildings, reeds and lush greenery
Share

Further Reading