Gerhard Munthe

Gerhard Peter Frantz Wilhelm Munthe ( born July 19, 1849 in Skansehagen, Elverum, Hedmark, † January 15, 1929 in Bærum, Akershus ) was a Norwegian painter, printmaker and designer.

Life

Gerhard Munthe was the third child of Christopher Pavel Munthe (1816-1884) and Christine Margrethe Pavel Abel. His father was a district physician. In his year of birth his family bought a second courtyard, Alfheim, Elverum. There he grew up together with his twelve siblings. His sister Margrethe was a well-known author later.

In 1869 he graduated from the school. He wondered if he should become a doctor like his father, but this encouraged him to follow his artistic talent. When he made ​​a trip to his uncle to Sogndal in the summer, he taught this to observe nature and landscape. That was an important foundation for his later work as a landscape painter.

Training and beginnings in painting

The following year he went to the school of painting in Christiania, [note 1] which was led by Johan Fredrik Eckerberg. He made ​​friends with Eilif Peterssen and Fritz Thaulow, who were also a pupil there. After three months, died Eckerberg and the school was taken over by Morten Müller and Knud Bergslien. Up to 1874 Munthe remained at the school and then moved to the Royal Drawing School. He later reported that the lessons of the sculptor Julius Middel tuna was for him of great benefit.

In the fall of 1874 he went to Dusseldorf to his distant relative Ludvig Munthe, who was then an admired landscape painter. Munthe did not paint during the stay are many pictures, yet he continued the landscape painting Ludvig Munthe. In addition, he learned the art Andreas Achenbach know.

The next two years were spent Munthe in Christiania. Then he asked the government for a travel scholarship for further education. His stated goal was to Paris and he learned French. A studio and suitable models were so expensive that he spent in Munich from 1877 to 1882 in Paris. Many of his colleagues were also in town or they had already visited. He also became friends with Erik Werenskiold. Munthe was a leading person in the Munich cultural scene and was from 1878 to 1879 Chairman of the Nordic Association. Although he did not attend any courses of the Academy of Art, but he was based in the city's museums and painted over 70 oil paintings. First, the images were composed by Norwegian studies. They had an elongated format, were dark and had a poetic undertone. A typical example of this is the oil painting Forstadsparti [note 2] of 1879. Image Nevlunghavn [note 3] from 1880, however, represents a striking color experiment Munthes

Protest movement of students Kristiania

1882 back in Christiania, Munthe became involved in a controversy between the Student Union and Kristiania established art association. In Norway, there was no art school and art students came away with new ideas and ideas of art from Europe, especially Paris, in the homeland. The students' association, led by Christian Krohg, Fritz Thaulow and Erik Werenskiold, organized a protest against the Art Association Kristiania and accused them of their exhibition and purchasing policy. In addition, only officials and citizens in the union, but no artists were sitting. Then the student association organized the first autumn exhibition along the lines of the Paris Salon. Munthe supported the protest, although he held the step too radical. From 1884 the annual autumn exhibition received government support. During the 1880s, Munthe was a frequent exhibitor and from 1882 to 1890, he was also a jury member. He usually got good reviews and the art historian Andreas Aubert raises Munthe's work in his criticisms forth.

The years 1886-1890

1886 Munthe spent the summer in an artists' colony in Fleskum am See Dælivannet. All participants, including Eilif Pettersen, Harriet Backer and Erik Werenskiold had spent a year in Munich and many of the participants were inspired by Japanese art. But the neo-romantic tendencies in the work of his colleagues, Munthe did not respond. The event went as a Fleksumsommer in Norway's history of art, as it represents the beginning of neo-romanticism in the country.

On December 21, 1886 Munthe married the 20 years younger Sigrun Sandberg ( 1869-1957 ) and moved to Sandvika in Bærum order. The marriage remained childless and ended in divorce in December 1919. Sandberg then married the polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen, who lived in the neighborhood.

In the 1890s, anti-naturalist tendencies and the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch developed became known in Europe. Munthe took annual trips to Østlandet, where Ulvin included in Mjøsa and Røisheim in Bøverdalen of his favorite places. He maintained his naturalistic style, even if he was no longer modern from the 1890s. But Munthe developed new views and his main interest is now no longer the landscape painting.

The years 1890-1893

Since the 1870s, there was the art movement of aestheticism, also called Aesthetic Movement. It was based on Japanese ideals and promoted the beauty in everyday life. The Norwegian professor of art history Lorentz Dietrichson starts the program " beauty at home " and directed the Museum of Art in Christiania one. Furthermore coined the Swede Ellen Key with an article and the book Skönhet för Alla ( beauty for all ) and Carl Larsson, who published the book Ett Hem of his own house in Lilla Hyttnäs, Munthe views. Other representatives of the movement " Skönvirke " as it was called in Denmark, were Thorvald Bindesbøll and Georg Jensen. In a letter to Carl Larsson Munthe wrote that he wanted to be like compared to the Frenchmen Eugène Grasset or the Danes Thorvald Bildesböll. Since 1886, he made more and more familiar with Japanese art. At Christmas 1890, he got by Bernt Grønvold a book on Japanese art given, probably the book Japansk Painters Art by Karl Madsen from 1855 Munthe thanked him and wrote. "You could not find anything that I would have appreciated more, nor was I aware of this aspect of Japanese art. " short time later, the Arts and Craft movement came to Norway, which passed in the Art Nouveau style from turn of the century.

In November 1890 Munthe began to deal with ornaments and designed patterns. He worked with Art Farmer and read Landstad folk songs from the Middle Ages and modern symbolic literature. In addition, he developed a "national norwegsiche " color palette with respect to nature and colors based on the old Norwegian folk art. For the color palette is one bright red, reddish violet, indigo, blue, bluish green and rich yellow. The subjects of his pictures are borrowed from the Norwegian legends and tales, medieval tapestries and wood carvings. Nature also plays a big role with the animal and plant world. His wife asked him to draw her something that she could weave later. Thereupon she sat images Munthes into tapestries. As of 1894, the Bildwirkereien were implemented in the Weber School of Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustiemuseums in Trondheim at Augusta Christensen and Ulrike Greve. A small number of rugs were also produced by Frida Hansen and Kristine Johannessen. The director of the museum Jens Thiis made ​​efforts to make Munthe's work to an international audience accessible and so it happened that Munthe Bildwirkereien in 1900 were on display at the World Exhibition in Paris. The carpets were motives of the saga of Sigurd the Crusader. Among them was the great carpet with the motif entry of King Sigurd 's in Constantinople Opel. After the exhibition, the tapestries were brought to the royal palace to Oslo.

In the spring of 1892 Munthe made ​​a short study trip to Paris. There he was guided by the Swedish painter Georg Pauli and looked at the monumental work of the French painter Puvis de Chavannes. In Samuel Bing's shop La Maison de l'Art Nouveau, he purchased a Japanese pottery. But the store also introduced, as the name suggests, arts and crafts of the then contemporary Art Nouveau.

In the same year Munthe Member of Senior Management of the Norwegian National Gallery, in 1905 he was also chairman.

1893 managed Munthe the final breakthrough with the exhibition Sort og Hvidt in Christiania. There he established eleven watercolors from among themselves Fiere, De tre prins eater, Mørkredd, Helhesten, Blodtårnet, Trollebotn and the onde stemor were. The media loved it and the newspaper Morgenbladet reported in the preview of the exhibition that the works would take the future of the ornaments. So was followed by other exhibitions in Paris and Chicago ( 1893), Stockholm (1894 ), Berlin ( 1896) and St. Petersburg ( 1897).

Illustrations of ancient sagas and fairy-tale motifs

Together with Erik Werenskiold he worked from 1896 to 1899 in a new edition of Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla Saga King. Werenskiold was first commissioned by the publisher, but Munthe took over the management of the decorative finish. He made drawings, chose fonts and paper and ribbon work. He also designed title Friese and vignettes for the Ynglingasaga, which is a central part of the book. For the ballads collection Draumkvedet of 1904 he was also responsible for the illustration and binding, but also for hand-drawn text. He even developed his own medieval font.

1896 secured the patron Axel Heiberg Munthe the project Eventyrrom ( German: Märchen space ) at Holmenkollen Turisthotell. From then on, he worked on interior design and installations. The first Holmenkollen Turisthotell, designed by architect Holm Hansen Munthe, burned down one years after its creation. The new hotel was designed by architect Ole Sverre as the previous one in the Dragon style. The interior decoration in Art Nouveau style, also drew on elements from the folk art and legends as well as flowers and animal motifs. Munthe should now turn a 8.12 meter by 5.17 meter room in a fairy tale room. The room with a ceiling height of 2.80 meters had two doors on the sides and a window on one of the faces. The ceiling he designed with two overlapping ring ornaments. The upper pattern was black rings with 150 cm diameter and the outside red, gear-shaped rings with 75 centimeters in diameter. Edged this pattern with a 28 -centimeter-wide border of zigzag lines, which were probably black and yellow. Drawings pear- shaped ornaments that should be screwed under the border, but they were not realized, as well as the eight rosettes that should break through the ring pattern. The walls had a 130 cm high plinth, which was richly decorated and divided into many sub-elements. The top section of the walls formed a 20 centimeters wide frieze with a yellow star pattern. This was also used to edge all the reliefs. The window is flanked by two relief panels on which a landscape scene is imaged with two trolls and stars. It is a smaller version of the image To Gygrer ( German: two giant troll ). Near the window, a scene could be seen with an old, hidden lock. To the right of a revised version of Blodsporene found himself ( German: traces of blood ), the bloody footprints of a polar bear showed who came from the castle. The picture was contoured with strong color fields, almost no prospects, painted and made the strong Japanese influence significantly. A tree with playful curved lines was a concession to the Art Nouveau style. On the front side opposite the window a carved and simplified version of the image Trollbotn was attached. About the scene of the lettering » Bjerget det Blaa " was ( German: blue mountain ) is incorporated. The scene showed a frightened princess with a crown that is kidnapped by four small rollers on a boat. They row to a mountain, before a stylized swan waiting. The design probably came from the folk song Åsmund Frægdagjævar in which the princess is kidnapped by trolls Ermelin into the mountain. Then Åsmund Frægdagjævar was sent by the king to save his daughter. Such a scene could be seen next to the door to the hotel, which was shaped like a rock. The Prince riding on a iron framed door, hanging over the menacing icicles. At the same time he fights a dragon. But wait several troll women already behind the door. Her clothes turned Munthe is as ornament land which was carved in distinctive contours. The same ornament surfaces found in the image Beilerne. This scene could be seen on the other side of the rock shaped door, but changed from the original version. Instead of the three sisters, there is only one woman, and she is no earthly princess, but the princess aurora borealis, with flaming hair. The polar bear in the scene, of whom there were three of the original work, symbolizes the transformed at night Prince. Over the door was the lettering » Nordon under fjöllo djupt under the hello leikar det « posted. It is the refrain of the popular song Liti Kersti. The opposite door in the French style had a large, almost semicircular window. In it, an owl with outstretched wings was shown. Owls are a common element of Art Nouveau. Furthermore Munthe designed furniture for the room, which had emphasized asymmetrical. They could be compared to the Anglo -Japanese furniture of French Émile Gallé. The chairs were decorated with peacocks, which are a central symbol of the Aesthetic Movement for beauty, but play a major role in Japanese art. In Eventyrrom Munthe has created a free interpretation of old legends and folk songs. Its symbolism referred to both Nordic traditions as well as on Japanese symbols. Even the Japanese studies and representatives of Art Nouveau Eugène Grasset saw clear references to the Japanese Munthe. In the spring of 1897, the area was completed. In 1914 the hotel was destroyed by fire.

Since 1897 Munthe was a board member of the norske Husflidsforening ( Norwegian Association of Arts and Crafts ).

In the years 1898 and 1899 Munthe built his house in Lysaker. The house has been destroyed by fire, but a series of watercolors showing what it looked like originally. In accordance to the greenery - Yallery Movement, a movement that has its origins in the Japanese and pale colors used in combination with green and yellow, designed Munthe its entrance hall and the living room. Werenskiold of Munthe visited, wrote in a letter to Grønvold that it was beautiful and shone with colors so that it was already almost too much.

Installations

In the following years Munthe took several orders for space equipment, including for some private houses and the Håkon's Hall in Bergen ( 1910-1915 ), for which he produced the first draft in 1904. The decorations and furniture, however, were destroyed in 1944 by an explosion. For the stair hall of the Oslo Stock Exchange he made two large paintings. Starting point of his furniture designs were simple rustic furniture and traditional street furniture. He laid emphasis on ingenuity that was missing in his opinion, the contemporary design. He also wanted to create a Norwegian design and said, " Old vi omgav os med i vore boliger tilhørte fremmed tankegang above fremmed oppfindsomhet, og gjorde oss derfor hjemløse before i egen stue " ( In German: . " Everything with which we are in our home surrounded, belongs to a foreign ideology and a foreign invention and that makes us homeless in our own living room. " ) He wanted that Norway, with its own animal and plant world developed their own thoughts and creates custom ornaments. His stylized or naturalistic murals often formed the starting point for his space creations. He worked to a certain degree with ceramic and silver and designed wallpaper.

By reducing og Meninger Munthe published in 1919 a book about his thoughts on art, lectures and collected newspaper articles. They make up the main part of the collection. However, in order fully to understand his conception of art, you should involve the letters to his colleagues, as the collection is listed without connection with each other.

From 1891 to 1925 Munthe created 85 designs, many of which were created in several versions, leaving about 300 individual pictures were taken.

Works (selection)

Awards

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