Summer Night at the Parsonage (sketch)

There are no known descriptions or photographs of this painting, but Astrup’s title indicates that it is an outside view of the parsonage buildings at Ålhus in Jølster. The buildings are probably the same cluster shown in pictures like Farmstead in Jølster (K25), but in a different mood: a light summer night.

The painting was on sale at Astrup’s exhibition at Bergens kunstforening (art society) in 1908 for 60 kroner, but it was given to Vilhelm Tvedt (1879–1940). At that time, Tvedt was working as a journalist at Morgenavisen in Bergen, but the following year he moved to Oslo to exercise his profession, working first at Verdens Gang and Tidens Tegn, and later at Aftenposten and NRK. Astrup lists Tvedt as the owner in 1927, and it is also Tvedt who loans the painting to the memorial exhibitions in Bergen and Oslo the following year. In the exhibition catalogue from 1928, the measurements are recorded as 56 x 57 cm and the signature as “Astrup”. Its subsequent history is unknown.