In the painting Barren Mountain Astrup has focused on the mountain Kleivefjellet, which is situated by Kjøsnesfjorden in Jølster. The monumental mountain formation fills the format and is symmetrically placed, and which is accentuated by the transverse position of the fjord with the shoreline in the picture’s middle ground and the rowan tree in the foreground. . Øystein Loge characterises this this work as a frontal composition. This is a formula that we see in other paintings as well, such as The Parsonage Garden (K44), Spring Atmosphere (K181) and Grey Spring Evening (K77). Loge compares the use of the frontal perspective, as an artistic device, to the icon, which symbolically establishes a connection between human beings and a spiritual deity. The frontal perspective is also a pictorial device that amplifies a direct and intense impression of nature. About the period around 1905 Astrup writes, “It was a period of raw atmospheres for me. I fought for my life and swore allegiance to the devil.”

Barren Mountain was painted from the vantage point of a window in the childhood home of Astrup’s wife, Engel Astrup. She grew up on the Sunde farm in Jølster, and according to Astrup, he painted this motif from her room about the time they met in autumn 1905. In the painting Spring and Ice Thaw under Barren Mountain (K141) Astrup makes a variation of the motif of Kleivefjellet. An important distinction between these two versions is that Spring and Ice Thaw under Barren Mountain has a spring atmosphere, while this version is has an autumn atmosphere. There is supposed to be a third motif painted from this window, but its whereabouts is unknown.

Barren Mountain, which Astrup originally called “Raw November Morning”, was for sale at his solo exhibition in 1908 for 280 kroner. This was one of the most expensive paintings, and was not sold. In 1909 the painting was mentioned in his correspondence with Sigurd and Isabella Høst, who offered to sell the painting for Astrup. In response to the offer Astrup wrote: “I asked Engel today, if I might have permission to sell the picture from her loft window – for 200 Kr. No – I added one hundred kroner – No — I continued until I arrived at 700 – then she was nearly in tears – ‘yes if we must and had permission to see it again in the home, of those who bought it’”. Barren Mountain was sold to the art collector Rasmus Meyer, and has since 1916 been part of the museum’s Rasmus Meyer Collection.