Nikolai Astrup

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Born: 1880

Died: 1928

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November 20, 2024

Summary of Nikolai Astrup

Nikolai Astrup is most known for his clever and unsettling paintings and woodcuts of the western Norwegian environment and the people who exploited it. He is sometimes described to as Norway’s “other” famous Expressionist (next to Edvard Munch, whose work he really despised). Although Astrup despised colour theory and the rules controlling optical perspective, his landscapes were far more than a child’s-eye reductionism. Rather, his work is praised for its clarity and the great affection and honesty with which he represented his rural surroundings, which falls somewhere between an academic landscape tradition and an early-modernist abstraction.

His art is thematically concerned with mankind’s lifelong relationship with the land, and it is rich in paganism and old mythology that opposed the repressive Christian culture into which he was born, and which he rebelled against. Though his work’s mystical themes adhered to neo-romantic orthodoxy, his art, which remained distinctly Norwegian throughout, rose to popularity at a period when Norway was fostering a new feeling of national pride following its independence from Swedish domination.

Despite his extensive travels across Europe, Astrup’s painting stayed loyal to his roots, with a focus on the countryside and pagan rituals of Norway (particularly the Jlster area).

Astrup infused his joyful and bleak landscapes with a mysterious spirituality that elicited a range of feelings from awe to dread (and sometimes all at once). Whereas Expressionists (like as Munch) used painting to explore (and expel) their innermost fears and worries, Astrup’s work possessed a youthful purity. This ability gave his vivid landscapes a strange stillness and harmony that set him apart from other current landscapists.

Astrup, like Munch, was a key figure in the introduction of the woodcut method to Norwegian art. Astrup’s woodcut reliefs, on the other hand, tended to be lighter in colour and mood than those of his colleague (who, by the way, was an early fan and collector of Astrup’s woodcuts).

Mythical spirits have an important role in Norwegian mythology, and the Troll was a recurring theme in Astrup’s writings. Trolls were depicted in hand-carved totems in Norwegian gardens, and Astrup trimmed his own trees to mimic Trolls, which he then painted.

Childhood

Nikolai Johannes Astrup, the pastor’s son, was the oldest of fourteen children. Petra Konstanse was the daughter of Peder Mrch Lodtz, a glove manufacturer from Bergen, and his father, Christian Astrup, was a parish priest at the Lutheran lhus Church in Jlster. Astrup was born in Bremanger, in the Sogn og Fjordane region of Norway, but grew up in the adjacent town of lhus. Astrup was well-known for defying his father’s stringent Christian morals.

Early Life

Between 1895 and 1897, Astrup’s father anticipated that his eldest son would pursue a career as a priest and sent him to the Trondheim Cathedral School to study theology and Latin. Astrup, on the other hand, was more interested in sketching and painting and did poorly in his exams. He went home after this setback, tutoring his younger siblings and designing wall hangings for his mother to weave. Soon after, in 1899, he relocated to Kristiania (now Oslo), where he spent just two weeks taking evening printing lessons at the Royal School of Drawing (Kongelige tegneskole), before enrolling in Harriet Backer’s painting school, where he remained until 1901.

Astrup travelled to Paris in 1901 to study at the Académie Colarossi under Norwegian artist Christian Krohg. Despite the fact that he only stayed for a year, Krohg, like Backer, praised Astrup, saying that “When I refer to Mr. Nicolai Astrup as an artist, I’m not referring to him in the same way that an older artist refers to a young artist as a ‘beginning.’ Mr. Astrup is far from a novice, despite the fact that he has only been painting for a short period. His exceptional talent has propelled him through the initial stage of growth, which most individuals spend at least 10 years in.” Astrup grew captivated with Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts during his time in Paris, notably those by Utagawa Hiroshige.

During his time in Paris, Astrup travelled to Berlin, Dresden, and Hamburg on short visits to tour museums and examine their treasures. He became particularly interested in Henri Rousseau, a French primitive painter, and Arnold Böcklin, a Swiss Symbolist. “It appears to me at the moment that there is no artist I understand as well as him,” he once said of Böcklin, “but perhaps [he] is also easy for everyone to understand […] what is most exciting about his pictures is their unexpectedness, a moment that sends a shiver down one’s spine, and yet one can enjoy the sight of them for a long time afterwards.”

Mid Life

In 1905, Astrup held his first solo show at Kristiania’s Blomqvist’s Auction House and Gallery (Blomqvist’s Kunsthandel) (the same year that Norway gained independence from Sweden). Astrup sold many paintings and received broad critical praise as a direct result of this spectacular show. In 1908, he hosted another important exhibition in Bergen, and in 1911, he staged another in Kristiania. By this time, Astrup had established himself as Norway’s most significant artist, a position he held until his death.

Between 1906 and 1907, Astrup relocated to Sunde, a small town nestled between the Jlstravatnet and Kjsnesfjorden lakes. The weather turned bad one day while he was working on a painting of the peak Kleivefjellet (which he called Kollen), so he sought refuge at a neighbouring farm. The 26-year-old Astrup fell in love with the farmer’s 15-year-old daughter, Engel Sunde, after becoming acquainted with him and his family. The pair married on December 23, 1907, and they went on to have eight children. However, because of Engel’s youth, there was considerable debate, and Astrup thought he was in danger of losing a grant.

After receiving his salary (from the Henrichsen foundation) in early 1908, Astrup travelled to London to tour the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Tate Gallery. Later on, he stated about the trip: “I was in London at the time. I wanted to see Constable, who painted landscapes that were comparable to those found in western Norway. I believe he was the first landscape painter to grasp the concept of colour in landscape painting.” Later, in 1911, Astrup was awarded a Houen travel grant and returned to Berlin, where he temporarily studied at a private art school. His research led him to a variety of galleries and shows.

After their first child (daughter Kari) was born in 1911, the couple relocated to Myklebust, on the south side of Jlstravatnet. After having issues with their landlord, the couple moved to an ancient cotter’s farm at Sandalstrand (now Astruptunet), on the south side of Lake Jlstravatn, in 1913. Despite Astrup’s rising fame, the artist’s young family struggled financially, and he suffered from health issues, particularly severe asthma. Despite this, Astrup continued to make art while both managing and expanding the farm. The farm and garden at Sandalstrand would subsequently appear as motifs in Astrup’s art.

Late Life

Even later in life, Astrup was receptive to new inspirations. In fall 1916, for example, he travelled to Stockholm and Copenhagen with Bergen painters Moritz Kaland and Nils Krantz to study modern French, Danish, and Swedish art.

He started reading the newly released Danish language avant-garde journal Klingen in 1917. Between 1917 and 1920, Klingen was edited by ceramicist Axel Salto, writer Poul Uttenreitter, and, beginning in 1918, novelist and critic Otto Gelsted. Poul Uttenreiter, Tom Kristensen, Emil Bnnelycke, Gabriele Münter, Harald Giersing, Albert Naur, Per Krohg, Vilhelm Lundstrm, and others contributed to Klingen, which allowed Astrup to keep up with international developments in Modern art and informed his first exhibition of woodcuts in Kristiania in May 1918.

Astrup got a trip grant from the Conrad Mohr Foundation in 1919, but he had to postpone future international excursions owing to ill health. This irritated Astrup to the point where he seriously considered fleeing to the United States or travelling to Munich to study with Wassily Kandinsky. “I would like to study the abstract painters a little more closely – Kandinsky and the other Russians – basically they interest me more than the French – Picasso and Matisse – although I would really like to have a French painter such as Le Fauconnier as a teacher.” he stated at the time.

On January 21, 1928, at the age of 47, Astrup died of TB and pneumonia. Engel, his wife, outlived him by 38 years, raising their eight children (the last of whom was born in 1926) while also maintaining the garden and structures that she and Nikolai had created at Sandalstrand (since 1986, home to the Astruptunet gallery).

Famous Art by Nikolai Astrup

Kjerringa med Lykta (Old Woman with a Lantern)

1895-1899

This is one of three paintings that Astrup made in his childhood by painting on fabric from old slacks, most likely due to a lack of funds and unable to purchase canvas (a seam from the trouser leg can be seen at the upper edge of the image).

A slightly slumped lady is seen strolling between two dark brown log homes, clothed head to toe in black and carrying a bright yellow-orange lantern. The action takes place in the dead of winter, when there is a lot of snow. Long icicles dangle from the right-hand cabin’s roof. Snow fills the space between the two cottages, and big flakes of white snow fall on the cabins and the woman.

Klar Juninatt (Clear June Night)

1905-1907

A beautiful green landscape at the foot of a mountain is shown in this artwork. A tiny pond in the foreground is surrounded by vivid green grass and dotted with waterlilies. A field of yellow buttercups may be seen beyond this. A little cluster of log houses in the distance reveals the presence of human life in this lovely location. Mountains loom over the area in the backdrop. On the closer mountains, streams and waterfalls (Kleberfossen) may be observed, while the higher, distant summits are covered in snow.

Rabarbra (Rhubarb)

1911-1921

A lady in a blue and white patterned dress, with her black hair gathered at the nape of her neck, stoops down in a garden picking stalks of red rhubarb in the foreground of this late career work. A blonde youngster with a black hat and coat kneels at the garden’s edge, his hands in the earth, to our left. Beyond the people, we see cherry trees in bloom, as well as a white picket fence that follows the lush green hill’s downward slope. Snow-capped peaks and flowering apple trees may be seen on the other side of the fence. The brushstrokes employed for the apple trees, on the other hand, are less distinct than those used for the other trees and plants in the garden.

BULLET POINTED (SUMMARISED)

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Nikolai Astrup is most known for his clever and unsettling paintings and woodcuts of the western Norwegian environment and the people who exploited it.
He is sometimes described to as Norway’s “other” famous Expressionist (next to Edvard Munch, whose work he really despised).

Although Astrup despised colour theory and the rules controlling optical perspective, his landscapes were far more than a child’s-eye reductionism.
Rather, his work is praised for its clarity and the great affection and honesty with which he represented his rural surroundings, which falls somewhere between an academic landscape tradition and an early-modernist abstraction.
His art is thematically concerned with mankind’s lifelong relationship with the land, and it is rich in paganism and old mythology that opposed the repressive Christian culture into which he was born, and which he rebelled against.

Though his work’s mystical themes adhered to neo-romantic orthodoxy, his art, which remained distinctly Norwegian throughout, rose to popularity at a period when Norway was fostering a new feeling of national pride following its independence from Swedish domination.
Whereas Expressionists (like as Munch) used painting to explore (and expel) their innermost fears and worries, Astrup’s work possessed a youthful purity.
Astrup, like Munch, was a key figure in the introduction of the woodcut method to Norwegian art.

Astrup’s woodcut reliefs, on the other hand, tended to be lighter in colour and mood than those of his colleague (who, by the way, was an early fan and collector of Astrup’s woodcuts).
Mythical spirits have an important role in Norwegian mythology, and the Troll was a recurring theme in Astrup’s writings.