Snow in Summer Mountains
seen from the valley looking east on road to Hvalvatnsfjörður in the far north of Iceland above
Akureyri on August 2, 2018, painted on August 14, 2018
12" x 9" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and
Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and
permanence, and #3 graphite on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold
press fine grain 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper
framed, including tax and shipping $280
Art of the Icelandic Landscape
National Art Treasures - To the Mountains
I had the good fortune to see the following paintings at two art museums in Iceland on August 13 and 14, 2018 at Kjarvalsstaðir HERE and the National Gallery HERE.
1
Sumarnótt / Summer Night
Jón Stefánsson (1881-1962)
Jón Stefánsson was Iceland's first modern landscape artist and one of the founders of modern art in Iceland. He spent three years studying engineering in Copenhagen, Denmark before turning to art. He studied art on Copenhagen and then Paris. He studied with Matisse, but it was Paul Cezanne work which led to his thoughtful composition and strong forms in his paintings of Icelandic nature. In Summer Night, perhaps Iceland's most iconic and well-known painting, Jon Stefánsson paints the quiet light of an Icelandic summer night, calm and serene. A single mountain, displayed in the center, is a recurring element of his art.
Án titils / Untitled, 1995
Eiríkur Smith Finnbogason (1925-2016)
Known as Eiríkur Smith, he's from Hafnarfjörður. He had to work so he didn't attend secondary school, his family could not afford to lose him as an employer. However, in the evening during the winter of 1939-1940 studied with painters Finn Jónsson and Jóhann Briem. After years of working, from 1946 to 1948 he studied at the Icelandic Art and Crafts School. Jóhann Briem was one of his teachers. In the summer of 1948, Eric held his first show Hafnarfjörður, works in oil, watercolor and chalk, of houses, ships at the pier and flowers, selling sixty paintings at low prices. It was enough to get him to Copenhagen where that fall he began his studies with his friend Benedikt Gunnarsson. In 1950, school completed, he and Benedict went to Paris, Spain, North Africa, and back to Iceland in the summer 1951. Eric painted abstract images based on shapes and surfaces in pure color. Then his style changed, the shapes more liberal. From the 1960s his paintings were painted with broad brush strokes depicting nature. In the 1970s he painted images of people and terrain with great precision. His hometown museum had held many exhibitions of his work, chronicling his career.
Moldarbarð / Soil's Edge
Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval (1885-1962)
Jóhannes Kjarval is one of the most important artists of Iceland, the country's Picasso. He is depicted on the Icelandic 2000 króna bill. A prolific painter, his paintings vary in style, mixing different styles into a very personal style. Some of his works include absurd and symbolic elements, elves and myths in landscapes. Many of his works include Icelandic landscape and lava formations. Yet many of his landscape paintings are cubist and abstract, his focus on the close ground, not the impressive mountains. Born in poverty, he was adopted. He first worked as a fisherman. But the spent all of his spare time drawing and painting, learning from noted artist Ásgrímur Jónsson. At twenty-seven, with financial support from fishermen and the Icelandic Confederation of Labor, he passed an entrance exam admitting him to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, where he completed his studies. He studied various styles, impressionism, expressionism and cubism, while becoming an accomplished drawer, which all served him well during his long, prolific, artistic life.
Snæfellsjökull / Snæfells Glacier
Júlíana Sveinsdóttir (1889-1966)
Júlíana Sveinsdóttir, one of Iceland's first female painters and textile artists, was also the first female artist to have a painting acquired by the National Gallery of Iceland. She studied with the prominent Icelandic artist Þórarinn B. Þorláksson, before moving to Denmark, returning to Iceland for summers. Her summers inspired her landscape paintings. In 1947, a her landscape won the Eckersberg Medal. She was an early member of the Danish Female Artists' Society, and sat on the board of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Though best known for her painting, Sveinsdóttir, was also a noted textile artist, one commission a decorative rug for the Supreme Court in Copenhagen.
Hálendi / Highlands, 1966
Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir Ream (1927-1977)
Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir Ream went to the US at the beginning of World War II with artist Louise Matthíasdóttir, who was going to New York to study art. It was ironical because Ragnheiður, not inclined toward art, worked at the Icelandic Embassy in Washington. She met Donald Forest Ream, a physicist, who she married. In her thirties, she developed an interest in painting, going to evening classes and then, for two years, a daily school for amateurs. Then she studied at the American Academy of Art in Washington for five years, 1954- 1959, her main influences being Mark Rothko and Richard Diebenkorn. Her painting career included major exhibitions but was only a mere ten years, from her first show in Iceland until her death in 1977.
Hrímþoka á fjöllum / Ice Mist in the Mountains, 1953
Guðmundur Einarrson,
known as Guðmundur frá Miðdal (1895-1063)
Guðmundur Einarrson was a draftsman, graphic artist, painter, sculptor, photographer, movie maker, author and mountaineer. He had exhibitions in Norway, Germany, and in London at the Tate Gallery. He'd studied art in Iceland 1911-13 and 1916, in Copenhagen, 1919-20 and Munich, Germany, 1920-25, studying graphics, oil painting, sculpture and ceramics. He was a pioneer of etchings and ceramics in Iceland. Of his five children, two of his sons are known Icelanders, the artist Erró and the geologist Ari Trausti Guðmundsson.
A Sampler of my Icelandic Mountain Watercolors
Memories of Herðubreið, 2016, HERE
Herðubreið Under Fair Weather Clouds, 2018, HERE
1,432 Meters of Loðmundur, 2015, HERE
Skessuhorn Study II, 2016, HERE
Below the Langjökull Glacier, 2018, HERE
Looking up the Valley
Sheep Looking Down the Valley at You
photographed on August 2, 2018, on F 839 to Hvalvatnsfjörður, a short, shallow fjord located on the peninsula between Eyjafjörður and Skjálfandaflói.
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