Midsummer Eve Bonfire
undefined undefined undefined, 1917 - 1921, 600 x 660 mm
KODE Kunstmuseer og komponisthjem (KODE Art Museums and Composer Homes), Sparebankstiftelsen DNB (The DNB Savings Bank Foundation)
In this painted version of the woodcut Midsummer Eve Bonfire, the midpoint of the picture is the column of flames that rises up towards the sky from a steep mountain slope. The bonfire has grown many times larger than the human figures around it, and takes on abstract, flickering shapes. Next to the bonfire a fiddler plays for the dancers, and around him the people of Jølster drink, dance and flirt, illuminated by the enormous bonfire. On the other side of the lake we can see other, smaller bonfires light up the mountain slopes. The Midsummer Eve celebration was a repeated theme in Astrup’s oeuvre: “the ugly yellow fire, which, rather than lighting up the summer night, lured and seduced me precisely because it was steeped in mystery, immorality and raw paganism.”
-1917-1921:
Nikolai Astrup
(1880-1928)
1921-1921:
Per Kramer
(1872-1946)
1921-1928-:
Olaf Ørvig
(1889-1939)
-1974-1974:
Nils Stian Stiansen
(1900-1974)
1974-1989-:
-1989-2005: