Erik Werenskiold’s painting was done at Solberg Farm in Bærum, outside Oslo, where he lived from the autumn of 1889 to the spring of 1896. Large farm buildings of the type shown here came with the modernization of Norwegian agriculture in the mid nineteenth century. Instead of numerous small outbuildings, each with its own function, the barn, stables, storerooms were now collected into large multi-purpose buildings.
Erik Werenskiold was the leading Norwegian landscape painter of the 1880s. He was influenced by Naturalism and the French plein-air style during his studies in Paris. After returning to Norway in 1883, his paintings took on a more National Romantic flavour. He painted peasants and the Telemark countryside. This view of the farmhouse is ordinary in temper, yet with an atmosphere and ambiance that set it apart from the more prosaic Naturalism’s harsh and unforgiving light.
Kristoffer Arvidsson from The Collection Gothenburg Museum of Art, Gothenburg 2014
