Letter
17 Pages
Transcription: Tor Martin Leknes
Translation: Francesca Nichols
Transcription
29.1.07
Kjære Hr. Múnthe
Tak for Deres brev, som jeg desværre
ikke kom tidsnok hjem til at kúnne
besvare i tide. – Det er selvfölgelig
forsent nú at indsende nogen billeder;
thi skjont jeg har nogle staaende
færdige, saa maa disse i det mindste
ferniseres lidt, og da tager det jo en
par dages tid, för de blir törre; desúden
trænger en pakke henimot 10 dage og
et brev ca. 8 dage herfra til Christiania
nú om vinteren, – saa det vilde i alle
tilfælde blive forsent nú. –
Jeg var som sagt ikke hjemme, da
Deres brev kom hid – jeg har i de
sidste aar lidt af tubercúlose; – men
var nú i den sidste tid meget friskere
og havde den störste arbeidslyst; men
jeg kúnde ikke faa male paa grúnd
af mine daarlige ökonomiske omstæn-
digheder og idelige gjældskrav, som
jeg er nödt at betale – da min fattige
far ellers vilde föle sig forpligtet
til at betale samme. Disse og en del
kunstneriske bekymringer (jeg har forsömt
saa meget únder min sygdom) tog slig
paa mit húmör, at jeg var ræd for at
faa et tilbagefald af brystsygdommen
og saa römte jeg fra nytaarsregninger
og lignende og tog mig túr bort til en
gammel ven – og da jeg nú kom igjen
laa der til min fortvilelse nye reg-
ning – samt Deres brev, – men tillige
ogsaa et pengebrev fra en anonym
”kúnstven”, som havde tilstillet Weren-
skiold 200 kr. ”til en úng kúnstner,
som fortjener stötte” – og Werenskiold
sendte dem til mig. Det var rigtig
en glædelig overraskelse for mig – baade
paaskjönnelsen – og at jeg kan faa betalt
min skyld og enda have noget igjen
– jeg havde nettopp forsögt at faa laa-
ne alle tænkelige steder. –
Men det var Deres brev jeg skúlde besvare.
Selv om det nú ikke havde været for sent
at indsende billeder, – saa tror jeg dog;
jeg alligevel ikke havde vovet at sende
noget til denne údstilling, som De er saa
elskværdig at indbyde mig til at deltage
i; – thi her gjælder det vel om at bille-
derne er særlig gode, – at de er et údvalg
af ens bedste ting; – men nú har jeg den
feil, at jeg aldrig veed om mine billeder
er gode eller ikke, för de har staaet sin
pröve paa en údstilling; thi de billeder,
jeg selv synes bedst om paa forhaand,
faar jeg höre ilde for naar de kommer
paa en údstilling – og omvendt overraskes
jeg med at billeder, som jeg ikke er
helt údfornöiet med faar den bedste
kritikk – ja med all respect for E.P.
(som jeg beder Dem ikke sige dette til), saa
synes jeg igrúnden det var en af mine
daarligste billeder, han valgte og som
siden kom i galleriet; og jeg bad ogsaa
om, at det ikke maatte komme i
galleriet tiltrods for E. Peterssenns elsk-
værdige tilbúd om at overlade mig avan-
cen – det var först, da jeg fik
Deres brev, hvori De bad mig om
at tillade salget, – at jeg gav mig;
thi jeg blev saa glædelig overrasket
over en anerkjendelse nettopp fra Dem.
Kittelsen og Dem er de malere, jeg
altid har beúndret mest af norske
malere. Desúden havde jeg en anden
grúnd til at være glad over Deres brev.
Jeg har trúffet Dem personligt en
II
eneste gang – jeg var den gang 19 aar
og havde aldrig eiet en pensel –
men maler vilde jeg blive – det
havde jeg sat mig i hovedet fra jeg
var smaagút af, til trods for, at jeg
aldrig havde havt anledning til at
forsöge noget i den retning. Saa talte
jeg med Dem derom og viste Dem
nogle tegninger, – Jeg húsker endnú
hvert af Deres ord – Det var den
blodigste haan, som De paa lempelig
maade kúnde give mig. – Jeg
var aldeles tilintetgjort; – thi det
var nettopp Deres dom, jeg satte alt
ind paa – jeg var næsten graatefærdig
og det skjönte De vist; thi De sagde,
idet vi skiltes, ”Ja der kan nok
blive noget af Dem, bare De finder
Deres eget.” – Men det vared en
stúnd för trodsen i mig voksed videre,
saa jeg atter vilde blive maler.
- - -
Det gjör mig imidlertid ondt
at forstaa, at mine elendige ram-
mer har skjæmt úd paa den
norske údstilling paa Charlottenbúrg;
men jeg havde troet at billedernes
eiere havde forsynt billederne med
bedre rammer – det var ikke af
særhed, egenhed eller lignende at
jeg havde stygge rammer paa mine
ting; men den gang jeg holdt min
údstilling, – var jeg saa blottet for
midler, at jeg gik der i Kristiania
og ikke kúnde faa údstilling i stand
af mangel paa rammer, – jeg sögte
paa mange maader at faa arbeide og
maatte tilslútt male baggrúnde for
fotografer og retoúchere plader o.l.
og i mellemstúnderne arbeidede
jeg selv mine rammer. – Det var i
hardeste vinterkvelden – jeg súlted og frös
– laa paa et atteliere úden seng
og havde det rent forbandet daarligt.
Jeg havde rige slegtninge, som jeg bad
om at laane mig penge til rammer
men jeg blev afvist; – havde jeg da
andet at gjöre end af mine súrt
fortjente fotograf-penge at kjöbe mig
trævarer, hövl e.t.c. og sveise ihob
nogle rammer, som jeg bedst kúnde
faa dem til, – jeg sled i allefald haardt
nok med dem. Blomqúist vilde
ikke kreditere mig rammer –
ja vilde ikke engang hænge op
mine billeder – det var med nöd
jeg fik údstille der paa den betingelse,
at jeg nöiede mig med en bestemt
liden plads (som alligevel var ledig),
og at jeg selv kom og hængte op
billederne tidlig om morgenen, saa han
ophængningen kúnde være færdig til
klokken 9, og han kúnde slippe at
lúkke údstillingen et minút. Og
efterpaa kom han og skjælte mig ud,
fordi jeg ikke havde afgjort med ham
hvad priser, jeg vilde sætte paa billederne
”thi havde han vidst at dette og
hint billede blev solgt saa billig, vilde
han selvfolgelig have kjöbt dem og
gjerne givet mer end den pris, jeg
havde sat paa dem” – dette var efter
at samme billeder var solgt den
förste dags formiddag – samme dags
morgen, da han gik forbi og saa paa
ophængningen, havde han kún et grin
til billederne. – Da der var solgt
en del af mine billeder, og jeg bad
ham om penge for at faa betalt min
gjæld til farvehandleren, saa vilde han
III
ikke give mig noget og úndskyldte
sig med, at kjöberne ikke havde
betalt paa forhaand, saa jeg kunde
intet faa, för han havde faaet pengene
af kjöberne.
Jeg har faaet saa imod den mand,
at jeg skal aldrig tage rammer hos
ham, – jeg skal i nödsfald heller
give bort mine billeder for at faa
rammer paa dem.
Jeg har længe tænkt at skrive til
Dem og spörge Dem om noget; –
men jeg har stadig været bange for, at
det kúnde höres úd som en paatræn-
gethed, – skúlde De synes det, vil
jeg bede Dem úndskylde mig med, at jeg
ikke paa forhaand kjender arbeidets
art.
Jeg har troet at De, hvis De kommer
til at údföre det store arbeide med
Haakonshallens restaúrering, – da
kúnde have brug for decorationsma-
lere ved enkelte rent, haandværksmæs-
sige dele af údförelsen; – nú har
jeg malt lidt vægge og lignende;
men jeg kan selvfölgelig ikke optage
nogen concúrrense med haandtværkere,
hvad övelse angaar – men til gjen-
gjæld har næsten alle disse decora-
tionsmalere den mærkelige egenskab
at ödelægge og skjæmme úd næsten
all farve, som de kommer i berörelse
med – saa jeg tror det ene kúnde
opveie det andet – med andre ord
jeg vilde spörge Dem, om De ikke
kúnde pröve mig, om De kúnde brúge
mig sammen med andre decorations-
malere – jeg tror De i mig skúlde
finde en arbeider med den störste
interesse for og forstaalese af Deres kúnst.
I den strid som har været fört om
Deres kúnst i Bergenske aviser, har jeg
ogsaa deltaget og opfyldte det for-
dömte ”Bergens Aftenblads” forside med
artikler mod Hr. B. J., der har sat
sig fore som sit livs opgave at mod-
arbeide Deres kúnst indenfor Bergen
– han har foresten ogsaa foresat sig
stadig at modarbeide all úng kúnst,
som maatte vise sig i Bergen – og da
han er med i Aftenbladets redaktion,
har han frit spillerúm for sin harce-
las over all god kúnst; – de únge
norske malere kan gjerne lade være
at údstille i Bergen, saa længe B.J.
sidder i Aftenbladet og Asor Hansen
i kunstforeningen; thi de faar allige-
vel ikke solgt noget der, hvis de
er gode kúnstnere da – og jeg synes
virkelig vi har adskillige gode malere
ogsaa blandt de yngste; – malere
som: Svarstad, Laúreng, Wigdehl,
Robert Vik, Tönnesen, Elmholdt,
Thorsteinson, Frost, Folkestad, Nils Dahl,
Sigmúnd Sinding, Cecilie Dahl, Thygesen,
Onsager, Lars Eriksen, Sverre Knúdsen og
Astrúp – jeg synes vi allesammen
er ganske bra malere – iallefald i
modsætning til den klikk, som Laúreng
meget betegnende har kaldt ”Pudretten”
Denne klik er altfor talrig til, at jeg kan
nævne op alle – de vigtigste er: Grande,
Ødegaard, Haldorsen, Lars Larsen,
Brynjúlv Larsen, Nilsen, Engebrigtsen,
Pettersen, Hjorth, Kristian Haúg, Deberitz,
Jacob Sann, Sandberg o.s.v. Men denne
klikk er jeg bange for faar all magten
en gang i tiden – disse daarlige ma-
lere klænger sig jo sammen som en
saúeflok og er altid enige, medens
IIII
de gode malere blant de únge
desværre ikke kan holde sammen
– dertil er de for úlige, – medens det
nettopp er den store l indbyrdes lighed
som gjör, at ”Pudretten” hænger saa
godt sammen – enighed gjör sterk – des-
værre! – De har jo allerede faaet en
af sine ind i kúnstnerstyret, – og de
gamle synes jo godt om dem ogsaa.
Men jeg har hört en fugl synge
om at De Hr. Múnthe skal danne
en úndtagelse, – at De for exempel
ikke tror paa Grandes ”genialitet”
(ja jeg har det bare fra en mand og det skal
ikke komme videre fra mig) – men det
vilde glæde alle os förstenævnte
malere, om saa var tilfældet; –
thi vi gaar med fölelsen af, at der
venter os en úbehagelig overraskelse
til vaaren, – hvis den gamle haandt-
værker (han er nemlig egentlig skomager)
skúlde faa statens stipendiúm i aar,
noget som vistnok ikke er úmuligt
únder de núværende omstændigheder.
Jeg vilde helst önske at Svarstad,
Wigdehl, Frost eller Laúreng fik
statens stipendiúm i aar – ja jeg vilde
selvfölgelig gjerne önske, at jeg selv
fik det; men det har jeg vel ingen
údsigt til; thi jeg har hverken sögt
det eller Houens legat paa flere aar
– og der blir jo taget hensyn til
hvorlænge man har sögt – har
jeg nylig hört sige. Hvad angaar
Hoúens legat, synes jeg at det
ikke kunde være úddelt retfærdigere
end det blev ved at gives til Svarstad.
Jeg havde tænkt, at jeg skúlde
faaet Thaúlow prisen for flere aar
siden, men kúnde ikke faa den, da
”Pudretten” har opsat den meningslöse
bestemmelse, at de, som har solgt til
galleriet ikke kan faa Thaúlowprisen.
Tiltrods for, at jeg er en af de yngste
af de ”únge”, skal jeg ikke kúnne reg-
nes blandt de ”únge” længer, fordi
galleriet kjöbte hint billede af mig
– det er nemlig kún for de ”únge”
Thaúlowprisen var bestemt – siger de
– og naar man har faaet i galleriet
er man plúdselig bleven gammel.
Nú i höst blev jeg lei af ad vente
paa at faa Thaúlowprisen, som flere af
Púdrettens medlemmer havde sagt, jeg
búrde havt for flere aar siden, de
sagde engang, at det var úretfærdigt, at
jeg ikke hadde faaet den förste aaret, –
og nú siden har jeg ventet, at de vilde
give mig den af naade hver höst, men hvergang
er jeg blit skuffet. Saa blev jeg som
sagt lei af at vente og skrev til
Thaúlow og spúrgte, om jeg ikke kúnde
faa den iaar. Thaúlow skrev tilbage
et par dage för han döde og sagde,
at han særlig önskede, at jeg maatte
faa den, og at han allerede havde
skrevet og gjort foranstaltninger
til, at jeg skúlde faa den. Han havde
da nettop seet mine ting paa Charlot-
tenborg údstillingen. Han siger om disse:
”Deres Udstilling i Kjöbenhavn var
údmærket og interreserede mig i höi
Grad. – Jeg holder Dem og Solberg
for de Betydeligste af vore Unge.”
Men man skal ikke úndres over, at ”Pud-
retten” helst gav den Thaúlowprisen til en af sine egne.
I det jeg atter takker Dem for Deres venlighed
at indbyde mig til deltagelse i Venedigúdstil-
lingen, skal ogsaa bede Dem úndskylde
mig dette brev, som blev længere end jeg tænkte.
Min bedste hilsen. Deres hengivne
Translation
29.1.07
Dear Mr. Múnthe
Thank you for Your letter, which I unfortunately
returned home too late to be able
to respond to in time. – It is obviously
too late now to submit any pictures;
for although I have a few that are
completed, they need to be treated with
a little varnish at least, and it would take
a few days time, before they are dry; in addition
a package would take up to 10 days and
a letter about 8 days from here to Christiania
now during winter, – so in any case
it would be too late now. –
As mentioned I was not at home when
Your letter arrived here – I have in the past few
years suffered from tuberculosis; – but
have recently been in much better health
and have had the greatest desire to work; yet
I was not able to paint due to
my poor economic situa-
tion and incessant debt demands, which
I [am] forced to pay – as my penniless
father would otherwise feel obliged
to pay them. These and a number of
artistic worries (I have neglected
so much during my illness) took such a toll
on my humour, that I feared that I would
suffer a relapse of pulmonary illness
and so I fled my New Year’s bills
and such and took a trip to visit an
old friend – and when I returned just now
to my consternation new bills awaited
me – together with Your letter, - but likewise
also a money order from an anonymous
“artist friend”, who had submitted 200 kroner to
Werenskiold “for a young artist,
who deserves assistance” – and Werenskiold
sent them to me. It was quite
a pleasant surprise for me – both
the recognition – and the fact that I can pay
my debts and even have something left over
– I had just attempted to borrow
from every possible source. –
But it was Your letter I intended to answer.
Even if it had not been too late now
to submit pictures, – I believe nevertheless;
that I would not have dared to send
anything to this exhibition, which You are so
gracious to invite me to participate
in; – for in this case it is important that the pic-
tures are particularly good, - that they are a selection
of one’s best works; – but you see I have this particular
failing, I never know whether my pictures
are good or not, until they have stood their
ground at an exhibition; for the pictures
that I like the best in advance,
I hear bad things about when they are
included in an exhibition – and the reverse, I am
surprised when pictures that I am not
completely satisfied with attain the best
criticism – indeed with all due respect to E.P.
(whom I beg You not to relate this to), I
believe in fact that it was one of my
worst pictures that he selected and which
was later included in the gallery; and I even asked
him, not to include it in the
gallery despite E. Peterssens gener-
ous offer to hand over the advance to
me – it was not until I received
Your letter, in which You asked me to
permit the sale, – that I gave in;
for I was so pleasantly surprised
by recognition from You of all people.
Kittelsen and You are the painters that I
have always admired most among Norwegian
painters. I had in addition another
reason to be happy about Your letter.
I have met You in person one
II
single time – I was 19 years old then
and had never owned a brush –
and yet it was a painter I wished to be – I
had set my mind on it from the time I
was a little boy, despite the fact that I
never had the opportunity to try
my hand at anything of the kind. So I
spoke to You about it and showed You
some drawings, – I can still remember
every word of Yours – It was the
bloodiest rebuke that You
could leniently convey to me. – I
was completely destroyed; – for it
was precisely Your judgement, that I
set my hopes on – I was nearly in tears
and You understood it seems; for You said,
as we parted, “Well you can make
something of yourself, if only You find
Your own [mode of expression].” – Yet it took a
while before the defiance in me increased,
so that I desired to become a painter again.
- - -
In the meantime it pains me
to learn, that my miserable
frames have spoiled the
Norwegian exhibition at Charlottenbúrg;
but I might have thought that the owners of
the paintings would have provided the pictures with
better frames – it was not out of
quirkiness, eccentricity or the likes
that I had ugly frames on my
things; but that time I had my
exhibition, – I was so devoid of
funds, when I was living there in Kristiania
and could not mount an exhibition
due to the lack of frames, – I sought
in every way possible to get work and
in the end had to paint backgrounds for
photographers and retouch plates and the like
and in my spare time I made
my frames myself. – It was during the
toughest winter evenings – I was starving and froze
– and slept in a studio without a bed
and was in a bloody bad way.
I had rich relatives, whom I asked
if I could borrow money for frames
but I was refused; – I had no choice
then but to buy wood moulding,
a plane, etc. with my bitterly-earned
photographer’s money and splice together
some frames, as best as I could
make them, – I strived arduously
with them at least. Blomqúist would
not give me credit for the frames –
Yes they did not even wish to hang
my pictures – it was by a hair
that I was permitted to exhibit there on the condition,
that I settled for a particular
narrow space (which was available anyway),
and that I came and hung my pictures
myself early in the morning, so that he
the mounting would be finished by
9 o’clock, and he could avoid
closing the exhibition for one moment. And
afterwards he came and upbraided me,
because I had not decided with him
what prices I wished to put on the paintings,
“for had he known that this and
that picture would sell so cheaply, he
would of course have bought them himself and
given them a higher price, than what
I had put on them” – this was after
those very same pictures had been sold on
the morning of the first day – the same day
in the morning, when he walked past and watched as I
hung them, he had merely sneered at
the pictures. – Since a number of my
pictures had been sold, and I asked
him for money so that I could pay my
debt to the art supplies merchant, he would
III
not give me any using the
excuse that the buyers had not
paid in advance, so I could
not receive payment before he had got the money
from the buyers.
I have so much against that man,
that I shall never take frames to
him, – I shall in the worst case rather
give my pictures away in order to put
frames on them.
I have planned for a long time to write to
You to ask You about something; –
but I have been afraid that
it might sound like an imposi-
tion, – should You feel that it is, I would
ask You to forgive me, since I am
not in advance familiar with the nature of
the work.
I have been thinking that, if You will
be executing the monumental job of
restoring Haakonshallen, – you might
have use for decorative painters
for certain parts of the job that
require mere craftsmanship; – now I
have painted a few walls and such;
but I obviously cannot enter into
any competition with craftsmen,
when it comes to experience – but on the
other hand, almost all of these decorative
painters have the strange habit
of ruining and spoiling nearly
all the colours that they come in contact
with – so I believe one thing might
compensate for the other – in other words,
I wished to ask You if You might
not try me, if You could make use of
me together with other decorative
painters – I believe You will find in
me a worker with the greatest
interest in and understanding for Your art.
In the dispute regarding Your art that has been
carried on in Bergen’s newspapers, I too
have participated, and filled that infernal
“Bergens Aftenblad’s” front page with
articles opposing Mr. B. J., who is determined
to make it his life task to oppose
Your art inside [the boundaries of] Bergen
– he has in fact also made it his business
to incessantly oppose all new art
that might makes its way to Bergen – and since
he is on Aftenbladet’s editorial staff,
he has free rein to carry on his deri-
sion of all good art; – the young
Norwegian painters might as well refrain
from exhibiting in Bergen, as long as B.J.
sits at a desk in Aftenbladet and Asor Hansen
in the art association; since they will in any
case not sell anything there, if they
are good artists, mind you – and I believe
we have quite a few good painters
also among the youngest; – painters
such as: Svarstad, Laúreng, Wigdehl,
Robert Vik, Tönnesen, Elmholdt,
Thorsteinson, Frost, Folkestad, Nils Dahl,
Sigmúnd Sinding, Cecilie Dahl, Thygesen,
Onsager, Lars Eriksen, Sverre Knúdsen and
Astrúp – in my opinion we are all
quite good painters – at least in
comparison to the clique, which Laúreng
quite characteristically has called “Poudrette”
This clique is far too numerous for me to
name all of them – the most important are: Grande,
Ødegaard, Haldorsen, Lars Larsen,
Brynjúld Larsen, Nilsen, Engebrigtsen,
Pettersen, Hjorth, Kristian Haúg, Deberitz,
Jacob Sann, Sandberg etc. Yet this
clique I fear will attain all the influence
one day – these mediocre paint-
ers cling together like a flock
of sheep and are always in agreement, while
IIII
the good painters among the young [generation]
unfortunately cannot stick together
– they are too dissimilar for that, – while it
is precisely the great shared resemblance
which makes it possible for “Poudrette” to keep
so well together – agreement creates strength – unfor-
tunately! – They have already gotten one
of their own onto the board of artists – and the
old [generation] seems to like them as well.
But a little bird has told me
that You Mr. Múnthe represent
an exception, – that You for example
do not believe in Grande’s “genius”
(well I have heard it from one man and it shall
not be passed on by me) – but it
would please all of us afore-mentioned
painters, if such were the case; –
for we go about with the feeling that
an unpleasant surprise awaits us
in the spring, – if the old crafts-
man (he is actually a shoemaker)
should win the government grant this year,
which evidently is not impossible
under the present circumstances.
I would really prefer that Svarstad,
Wigdehl, Frost or Laúreng received
the government grant this year – well I would
obviously wish that I myself
received it; but there is little chance
of that; for I have not applied either for
it or the Houen endowment in several years
– and consideration is given to
how long one has applied – as
I have recently heard. With regard to
the Hoúen endowment, I think that it
could not be more completely fair
than if it ended up being given to Svarstad.
I had thought, that I would
receive the Thaúlow prize several years
ago, but could not receive it, as
“Poudrette” had set up the meaningless
provision, that those who had sold [something] to
the gallery could not receive the Thaúlow prize.
Despite the fact, that I am one of the youngest
of the “young generation”, I shall no longer be
considered among the “young”, because
the gallery acquired that picture of mine
– for the Thaúlow prize was only meant
for the “young generation” – they say
– and once one has been included in the gallery
one has suddenly become old.
This past autumn I became tired of waiting
for the Thaúlow prize, which several of
Poúdrette’s members had said, that I
should have got several years ago, they
once said that it was unfair, that
I had not received it the first year, –
and now every autumn since I have expected that
they would give it to me out of compassion, but each time
I have been deluded. And then as mentioned
I became tired of waiting and wrote to
Thaúlow and asked if I could not
receive it this year. Thaúlow wrote back
a few days before his death, and said
that he particularly wished that I should
receive it, and that he had already
written and made arrangements
in order that I should receive it. He had
just seen my things at the Charlot-
tenborg exhibition. About these he says:
“You exhibition in Copenhagen was
excellent and interested me
Greatly. – I consider You and Solberg
as the most Significant among our Young [painters].”
Yet one should not be amazed, that “Pou-
drette” would prefer to give it the Thaúlow prize to one of their own.
As I once again thank You for Your generosity
in inviting me to participate in the Venice exhibi-
tion, I would also ask You to forgive
this letter, which became longer than I had planned.
My best greetings. Your devoted