The “Young Artists Exhibition”, initiated in the 1890s, was an annual show at C. W. Blomqvist Art Dealers in Kristiania (Oslo), (from 1919 it was moved to the artist association Kunstnerforbundet. The exhibition was considered “a spring fete” by one of the critics, and great expectations were attached to what novelties the young artists might come up with. Among this year’s exhibitors were Hans Ødegaard, Severin Grande, Michaloff Wigdehl, Thorstein Thorsteinson and Henrik Lund, in addition to Nikolai Astrup. Several of them were students at Harriet Backer’s school of painting in Oslo. 

This particular year the exhibition was criticised for holding back the youngest among them. The jury had been too strict, in the opinion of the critics, and the exhibition was thus lacking in “Zeal, Joy and Talent”, which only youth could represent. “Where is the rebelliousness, and where is the provocation”, another critic asked. The jury responded to the criticism by setting up a supplementary second show.