After Amaldus Nielsen (1838–1932) Norway
Evening at Fredrikstad, 1918
signed indistinctly, possibly “Hj. U…”, and dated “18” lower right
oil on board
unframed 42 × 55 cm (16.5 × 21.7 in)
framed 53 × 65 cm (20.9 × 25.6 in)
Comparative work:
Amaldus Nielsen, Aften ved Fredrikstad (Evening at Fredrikstad), 1909, oil on canvas, present location unknown.
Condition report:
Very good condition with bright and clear colors. Ready to hang.
Please contact the gallery for a detailed condition report.
Essay:
This atmospheric evening seascape was painted in 1918 by an as yet unidentified artist and closely follows Amaldus Nielsen’s Aften ved Fredrikstad of 1909. The relationship between the two compositions is unmistakable. In both, a sailing boat occupies the central waters beneath an expansive and dramatically clouded sky, while a narrow strip of intense evening light separates sea from horizon. Smaller vessels recede into the distance, establishing both scale and a sense of stillness across the broad surface of the water.
The present painting is nevertheless not a mechanical copy. The unidentified artist has altered several details and developed the scene through a more concentrated and chromatically intense palette. The central vessel is brought into sharper prominence, its sails forming a strong silhouette against the illuminated horizon. Deep blues dominate the foreground water and the upper sky, while streaks of orange, ochre and pale turquoise register the last light of sunset. The sky occupies approximately two thirds of the composition and becomes almost a subject in itself. Heavy clouds gather above the tranquil water, their dark masses opening intermittently to reveal passages of luminous blue and warm reflected light.
The model for the composition was created by Amaldus Nielsen, one of the most important Norwegian painters of the coast during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born at Halse near Mandal in 1838, Nielsen studied in Copenhagen before continuing his training with Hans Gude at the Düsseldorf Academy. Gude’s emphasis on close observation of landscape remained fundamental to Nielsen, but he gradually moved away from the constructed romantic landscape towards an increasingly direct study of nature.
Nielsen became especially associated with the coastlines of southern and western Norway and has often been described as one of Norway’s earliest naturalist landscape painters. From the 1860s onward he frequently completed paintings outdoors before the motif, an unusually direct working method in Norwegian art of the period. Light, weather and changing atmospheric conditions became central to his practice. The same location might be returned to repeatedly under different conditions of morning, evening, mist or changing weather.
Fredrikstad and its surrounding archipelago formed part of this geography. Nielsen is documented working at Arisholmen near Fredrikstad as early as 1884, and surviving paintings demonstrate his continued interest in the coastal landscape of Østfold. By the time he painted Aften ved Fredrikstad in 1909, the theme of boats at rest or moving quietly across evening water had become deeply embedded within his art.
The 1909 painting...
Category
1910s Post-Impressionist Paint Paintings