Rainy Weather Atmosphere
undefined undefined undefined, 1905 - 1908, 570 x 970 mm
Trondheim kunstmuseum
Bright white shirts, underwear and tablecloths lie strewn over the hill, draped like a jigsaw puzzle. The clothes are depicted as simple geometrical shapes, in contrast to the lush landscape. Nevertheless, one can sense an interaction between the lines created in the spaces between the clothes, and the shapes of the hills and mountains, and the fence and footpath, as they recede into the picture. A sudden shower has made the sod roofs and trees heavy and wet, and a little brook is filled with water. It was common to lay the washing out in the sun to be bleached, but in Jølster, where the weather often changes quickly, it was not without risk. There is something sad, yet also humorous about the clothes on the hill that slowly sink into the mud.
-1905-1908:
Nikolai Astrup
(1880-1928)
1908-1908:
Bergens Kunstforening
1908-1936:
Jacoba Johanne Smit
(1856-1936)
1936-1960:
Christian Smit
(1886-1960)
1960-1971-:
Lilly Smit
(1893-1979)
1977-1977:
Galleri Haaken
1977-1997:
Trondhjems kunstforening
1997-current:
Trondheim kunstmuseum
Bergens kunstforening. Katalog over Nikolai Astrups Maleriutstilling. Bergen: Bergens kunstforening, 1908.
Kunstforeningen i København. Nikolai Astrup 1880–1928. København: Kunstforeningen i København, 1965.
Kunstnerforbundet. Nikolai Astrup. Malerier, tresnitt. Oslo: Kunstnerforbundet, 1971.
Bergens Kunstforening. Nikolai Astrup 1880–1928. Maleri, tegning, grafikk. Bergen: Bergens kunstforening, 1980.
Loge, Øystein. Gartneren under regnbuen. Hjemstavnskunstneren Nikolai Astrup. Oslo: Grøndahl Dreyer / De Norske Bokklubbene, 1993 [1986].
Bergens Kunstforening. Nikolai Astrup 1880–1928. Mindeutstilling. Bergen: Bergens kunstforening, 1928.
Rainy Weather Atmosphere is one of several rain motifs from the parsonage at Ålhus in Jølster. The motif depicts the smokehouse in the foreground with several barns and sheds in the painting’s middle ground. One can see more of the farmyard in the painting Autumn Rain in a Mountain Village (K188; 1901), Farmyard in Jølster (K25; 1902) and Storehouse in Jølster (K41; 1902–1905). The different details of the farmyard link the pictures, in addition to the fact that Klipperfossen (Kleberfossen) forms a common landmark in the background. Astrup’s own title, “Bleikvollhaugen” (Pale meadow hill), points to the slopes that are covered with the clean wash laid out to be bleached by the sun.
The painting was acquired by Bergen Art Society at Astrup’s solo exhibition in 1908 – with the title “Dismal Grey Day”, and was raffled out under the title “Rainy Weather Atmosphere” the same year.