Painting Norway: Nikolai Astrup (1880-1928) – Dulwich Picture Gallery

The Dulwich Picture Gallery in leafy south London does have some interesting exhibitions, and the most recent was Painting Norway by the Norwegian artist Nikolai Astrup (1880-1928). Many of these paintings are being shown for the first time outside Scandinavia.

Astrup grew up in Ålhus in Jølster, where his father was a priest. A sickly child, Astrup spent a lot of time indoors but most of his pictures are concerned with the landscape outside, though he also painted places and buildings that were important to him, such as the parsonage where he grew up and his farmstead at Sandalstrand (later named Astruptunet after him).

I was drawn to the unusual, almost mystical landscapes, the colours and the representations of Norwegian culture. My favourite pictures were Astrup’s depictions of Midsummer’s Eve bonfires, the fires bright and almost otherworldly amid the landscape of the fjords. He painted many scenes of his home town in south west Norway, in all seasons and weathers, fields covered in marsh marigolds, midnight skies glowing purple, mountains which take on human qualities.

Astrup is little-known outside his native Norway, but this really needs to change: his work is superb, unusual and really worth exploring.