EDINBURGH.- The Scottish National Gallery is hosting an exhibition of masterpieces from one of the world’s finest private collections of 19th-Century Norwegian and Swiss landscape paintings. Thirteen stunning works, by artists such as Johan Christian Dahl, Alexandre Calame and Thomas Fearnley, have been lent by American collector and leading expert Asbjörn Lunde, and thanks to this long-term loan, are being shown in Scotland for the first time.
Rocks and Rivers showcases an important but little-known chapter in 19th-century landscape painting. The artists represented, who include Caspar Wolf, Robert Zünd and Giuseppe Camino, travelled extensively, producing expansive views and intimate nature studies of locations in Scandinavia, Italy and Britain, as well as renowned sites in the Alps, such as Lake Lucerne and the Bernese Oberland.
Works by these masters are extremely rare in British public collections, and, for the duration of the loan, the Scottish National Gallery is the only gallery in the UK where visitors can explore such a variety of their paintings.
The history of Norwegian landscape painting can be largely traced back to Dahl (1788-1857) and Fearnley (1802-1842). Born in Bergen and trained in Copenhagen, Dahl settled in Dresden, the cradle of German Romanticism, in 1818 and befriended the German artist Caspar David Friedrich. However, he returned to Norway five times thereafter and this is where he found inspiration for the three outstanding paintings included in the exhibition; View at Skjolden in Lyster(1843); Shipwreck on the Coast between Larvik en Frederiksvern (1847); and Study of a Rock from Nystuen on Filefjell (1850). They demonstrate the artist’s breadth and superb skills, with View at Skjolden in Lyster a perfect example of Dahl’s ability to capture the atmospheric Norwegian landscape.
Fearnley is regarded as Dahl’s outstanding pupil. He travelled widely, and in 1836-38 visited England, from where his grandfather had emigrated to Norway. Fearnley’s Fisherman at Derwentwater (1837) is a sublime depiction of the Lake District. Himself a keen fisherman, Fearnley included a figure carrying his catch and rod, the latter’s bold sweep dominating the composition.
Widely regarded as Switzerland’s greatest landscape painter, Alexandre Calame (1810-1864) created striking views of expansive mountains, dense forests and rushing torrents, which are indebted to the work of 17th-century Dutch landscape artists such as Jacob van Ruisdael. Calame trained in Geneva with François Diday, setting up his own studio in 1834 and soon becoming his teacher’s rival. Calame’s grand alpine landscapes were highly successful and he sold pictures to clients across Europe, Russia and the United States. Exhibited is Calame’s impressive A View of the Jungfrau Massif seen from above Interlaken, of about 1854-60. This iconic view is dominated by the Jungfrau (4,158m / 13,642ft), flanked by the Mönch, with the Eiger just visible top left. The heart of the Bernese Oberland, this region has been listed UNESCO World Heritage since 2001. Studies such as the mesmerising The River Lütschine near Lauterbrunn (1862), however, were exercises and records from his travels and Calame kept them in his studio.
Asbjörn Lunde, the son of Norwegian émigrés to the United States, began collecting in 1968. The first works he acquired were by Fearnley and fellow Norwegian Knud Baade. Now one of the world’s leading experts and collectors in this area, Lunde has since lent and gifted works to prestigious cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum (New York), the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, MA), and The National Gallery of Australia (Canberra).
Michael Clarke, Director of the Scottish National Gallery, said: “It is a privilege and a pleasure for the Scottish National Gallery to show these outstanding paintings from the Lunde Collection. We are delighted to present to our audiences the stunning works of these landscape masters, highlighting an important yet little-known chapter in nineteenth-century landscape painting”.
