Viking Sun Art Collection

THE RESTAURANT ENTRANCE

THE RESTAURANT ENTRANCE | DECK 2 THORVALD ERICHSEN 1868–1939 X NORWAY X OIL ON CANVAS Thorvald Erichsen was a Norwegian post-impressionist painter known primarily for his landscape and still life paintings. He developed his own poetry of colors and painterly style, and today is considered one of Norway’s greatest colorists and is among the most significant names in modern Norwegian painting. Erichsen was born into a wealthy Trondheim family, spending his early years mountain hiking and enjoying the outdoors before he moved to Kristiania to study law. He soon interrupted his studies to enroll in the Royal Drawing School (Den Kongelige Tegneskole) in 1889 and later studied under Kristian Zahrtmann in Copenhagen. This is where Erichsen was first introduced to the art of Pierre Bonnard, who became a major source of inspiration among other impressionists including Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. His early paintings utilized a dark palette and express a strong awareness of nature. However, after extended stays in Southern Europe, where he studied how light breaks and about the volume of color, Erichsen’s color palette became gradually freer and lighter. His breakthrough came in 1900 with the painting From Kviteseid in Telemark (Fra Kviteseid i Telemark). This Nordic summer landscape, inspired by a French impressionistic vision, still stands as the ultimate break with naturalism in Norwegian art in the 1800s. Nature was no longer to be reproduced, but represented. Erichsen’s work is characterized by three main themes: variations and series of landscapes; figurative compositions; and intimate interiors, often with flowers and open windows. In the 1900s, he became almost exclusively occupied with landscape painting where the motifs dissolve and become more subject to the reflections and refractions of light, and where warm and cold colors act against each other. HALLINGDAL | 1901 32

THE RESTAURANT ENTRANCE | DECK 2 FRITS THAULOW 1847–1906 X NORWAY X PASTEL Norwegian impressionist painter Frits Thaulow is most famous for his naturalistic depictions of landscapes. Thaulow experienced a successful career during his lifetime and is today considered to be one of the leading artists of his generation. After completing his education in the field of pharmacy, Thaulow chose to turn his focus on art and studied it in Copenhagen and Karlsruhe. He was one of the earliest artists to paint in Skagen in northern Jutland, Denmark, famous for its Skagen Painters. Thaulow arrived here in 1879 with his friend Christian Krohg and abandoned his specialization in marine painting, turning instead to Skagen’s favorite subjects—fishermen and boats on the shore. These early expressions were the starting points for the atmospheric depictions of nature and cultural landscape that later put him on the world map. Returning to Norway in 1880, Thaulow became a significant figure in the Norwegian art scene, together with Krohg and Erik Werenskiold. And in 1882, he helped establish the first National Art Exhibition (also known as the Autumn Exhibition). Many of Thaulow’s best-known Norwegian works are of Åsgårdstrand, which had become an important center for artists and painters in the 1880s. But in the late 1890s, Thaulow traveled to Europe and visited Venice, which came to have an important influence on his work. It was, however, in France that he found his home and where he encountered French impressionism. He moved permanently to the country in 1892, but continued to participate eagerly in the art debate in Norway. FRENCH VILLAGE STREET IN MOONLIGHT | 1893 33