P.8
ØYSTEIN SJÅSTAD
P.22
THE (A)POLITICAL THAULOW: MODERNITY AND NOSTALGIA
ØYSTEIN SJÅSTAD
P.80
ELSEBET KJERSCHOW
P.48
ALEXANDRA AND FRITS THAULOW: ART FOR THE HOME
NICHOLAS PARKINSON
P.152
ENDNOTES
P.193
CHRONOLOGY
P.202
LIST OF WORKS
P.207
AUTHORS
P.211
As a painter and a man, Frits Thaulow (1847—1906) was a towering figure in his day. In his hometown of Kristiania, he was referred to by his first name, Frits, even by people who didn’t know him. He travelled tirelessly, forging contacts and networks in major cities and other notable places in Norway, Europe and the USA. He was affable, amenable, curious and productive, and an early example of a truly international artist. But he also had his critics; he was accused of being a lightweight, a postcard painter, a businessman. What Thaulow yearned for was the wider world and perfection in his repetitive renditions of similar themes. What can we learn from his approach to painting?
Thaulow’s career is almost without parallel in Norwegian art history. He is probably the best represented Norwegian artist in collections outside of Norway. Before Edvard Munch took the world by storm in the early 20th century, Thaulow was Norway’s unrivalled “international” painter. His works can be found in leading art museums across Scandinavia, in France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Great Britain, Ukraine, Turkey, Argentina, Cuba, and above all the USA.
The exhibition “Frits Thaulow” takes a sympathetic look at Thaulow’s art, without ignoring how the modern art market influenced his artistic practices and decisions. Rather than subject every aspect of his production to retrospective art historical categories, our aim is to explore his artistic development in terms of what was then an emerging but fast-growing transnational art market. During the 1880s and 1890s, galleries effectively replaced the Parisian salons as the authorities on artistic taste and Thaulow was one of the Norwegian artists who navigated the change with the greatest success. At the same time, he built friendships with eminent international artists and took an active interest in the latest movements, such as impressionism and Art Nouveau.
Most exhibitions devoted to Thaulow in Norway in recent decades have concentrated on different periods or aspects of his career; the 1880s, for example, in the 1979 exhibition at Blaafarveverket, or his international subjects in the 2006 exhibition at Lillehammer Art Museum. By contrast, in 1997, Rådhusgalleriet in Oslo mounted a broader presentation of Thaulow’s entire career, to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth. In 1952, when Oslo Kunstforening showed seventy pictures spanning Thaulow’s entire career, Arve Moen wrote in Kunst og Kultur :
The judgements passed on Frits Thaulow by the Norwegian art world have been mixed, but when one views his work in context, it becomes clear that his paintings were as much a genuine expression of the contemporary world as they were deeply rooted in his entire personality. He would survive many a storm of criticism.i
The essays in the present book, by authors Øystein Sjåstad, Elsebet Kjerschow and Nicholas Parkinson, address various central aspects of Frits Thaulow’s art. In the exhibition, we show several of his most important works from the 1880s, as well as offering an opportunity to study the shifts in direction, renewals and repetitions that occurred throughout Thaulow’s career.
i Arve Moen, «Utstillinger i Oslo våren 1952», Kunst og Kultur 35 (1952): 191.
In addition to works depicting locations he visited as a plein air painter, we also show the various approaches he used when developing and repeating subjects. He loved painting outdoors, but often finished pictures in the studio. Ultimately, a good picture was more important than a topographically truthful representation of a scene. Painting can serve many objectives. In recent times, it has become common to interpret painting conceptually, and hence intellectually. For Thaulow, this was not the goal in his beautiful renderings of snowy landscapes, gardens and rivers. Nevertheless, his pictures invite us to look closely. Not in order to discover what places looked like over a hundred years ago because these depictions do not always correspond to reality but because paintings have the power to draw us into other realities.
Frits Thaulow was a citizen of the world of his day. Both his art and the man himself travelled widely, introducing Norwegian nature to people in foreign countries. For despite the amount of time he spent abroad, Thaulow remained involved and interested in the cultural affairs of his home country. He was central to the development of the modern Norwegian art scene. As one of the founding figures behind both the National Annual Autumn Exhibition and the artist-run organisation Bildende Kunstneres Fagforening, Thaulow was and continues to be important for our culture.
We wish to express our deepest gratitude to Øystein Sjåstad for his long-term focus on Thaulow’s art and for developing this illuminating exhibition together with Erlend Hammer, former curator at Haugar Art Museum. In this process, Christiania Auksjoner, Blomqvist Auction House and various individuals have provided invaluable assistance in tracking down paintings. Our thanks to them all. Not least, we are grateful to all the owners who have generously loaned artworks. Without their generosity, it would have been impossible to tell this story to a wider audience. Likewise we thank The Savings Bank Foundation DNB for their generous support to both the exhibition and this catalogue. Thanks also to curator Steffen Håndlykken and project manager Kim Solberg at Haugar Art Museum, and to senior curator Tove Haugsbø and project manager Sofia Paulusma at Kode, who have piloted this unique collaborative project safely into harbour.
Library of Norway, Oslo
Copyright © 2025 by Vigmostad & Bjørke AS All Rights Reserved
ISBN 978–82–450–5976–2
© 2025 Haugar Art Museum, Vestfoldmuseene www.vestfoldmuseene.no
© 2025 Kode kunstmuseer og komponisthjem www.kodebergen.no
Editors: Øystein Sjåstad Steffen Håndlykken
Authors: Elsebet Kjerschow Nicholas Parkinson Øystein Sjåstad
Design:
Anette L'orange, Blunderbuss
Fonts: LL Bradford and Adobe Caslon Pro Paper: Galerie Art Volume Print: Livonia Print, SIA Repro: JK Morris
Edition: 400
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Frits Thaulow
The exhibition is organised by Haugar Art Museum, and Kode kunstmuseer og komponisthjem
Exhibited at Haugar, Tønsberg: 20.09.2025—04.01.2026 and at Kode, Bergen: 13.02.2026—23.08.2026.
Cover: Frits Thaulow
Ice on the Mesna River (pres. 1905)
Photo: Øystein Thorvaldsen
Pages 2—3: Frits Thaulow
Waves on the Beach at Dieppe (detail) (ca. 1894–98)
Photo: Margarida Ramalho
Pages 212—213: Frits Thaulow
Beach study at Dieppe (detail) (pres. 1897)
Photo: The National Museum / Børre Høstland
Questions regarding this publication can be raised to: Fagbokforlaget
Kanalveien 51 5068 Bergen
Phone: 55 38 88 00
Email:
fagbokforlaget@fagbokforlaget.no www.fagbokforlaget.no
The material is protected by the Copyright Act. Images, text and other parts of this book may not be copied or made available to the public, digitally or analogically, without legal authority or written permission from the copyright holders.
Vigmostad & Bjørke AS is certified Miljøfyrtårn, and the books are produced at environmentally certified printers.
Published with support from: Sparebankstiftelsen DNB and Anders Jahres Humanitære Stiftelse
Frits Thaulow (1847—1906) var sentral i utviklingen av den moderne kunsten i Norge. Med friske og fargerike friluftsmalerier fra by og land både begeistret og sjokkerte han Kristianias kunstliv. Han var med på å etablere Høstutstillingen som fra 1882 ble arena for den mest radikale kunsten i Norge. Mot slutten av 1800 – tallet ble han også internasjonalt anerkjent for sine virtuose malerier av snø, kveldsstemninger og vann i bevegelse. Han bosatte seg fast i Frankrike i 1892 og ble en del av Paris’ yrende kunstliv. Denne boken gir en grundig innføring i Thaulows virke som maler, med eksempler på de viktigste temaene og motivene i kunstnerskapet.