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Carl Larsson (1853-1919), Open-Air Painter, 1886, Oil on canvas, 119 x 209 cm., Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.

L.A. Ring (1854-1933), A Summer's Day at Roskilde Fjord, Oil on canvas. 95.5 x 144.5 cm., Randers Kunstmuseum, 1900.

Prins Eugen (1865-1947), The Cloud, 1896, Oil on canvas, 119 x 109 cm., Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm.

Statens Museum for Kunst
Sølvgade 48-50
Copenhagen
+45 3374 8494
A Mirror of Nature.
Nordic Landscape Paintings 1840-1910
October 6, 2007-
January 20, 2008

It is everywhere around us. Landscape. An ubiquitous backdrop that moves our emotions — if we do not take it for granted, that is. At one and the same time, it is universal and deeply personal in scope. For what is inherently sealed in the outer, physical world, and what do we add in terms of emotions and intentions when we record and reproduce nature? A Mirror of Nature. Nordic Landscape Painting 1840-1910, focuses on internal and external landscapes within Nordic art.

Bringing together Edvard Munch, Vilhelm Hammershøi, August Strindberg, Christen Købke, and Akseli Gallen-Kallela together in the most comprehensive exhibition of Nordic landscape painting ever staged and a total of 106 works, A Mirror of Nature. Nordic Landscape Paintings 1840-1910 gives us the very best of landscapes — including important highlights from other Nordic collections that have never before been on display in Denmark and are unlikely to ever reach our shores again.

The display offers a singular opportunity to experience the best of Nordic landscape painting under one roof. The Nordic national galleries involved in the event have contributed important works from their collections, gracing the exhibition with exceptional work.

The exhibition describes an era of art history when perception of landscapes underwent a shift. Once regarded as an inferior vein of painting, it rapidly became the most appreciated In Nordic countries in particular, the breakthrough of landscape painting in the mid-19th century was rooted in a desire to generate distinct national imagery anchored in the particular topography of each country. The tension between national and international, between a specific national identity and artistic idiom, and an ever-growing openness to inspiration from the rest of Europe constitutes a pivotal point in the exhibition.

The 106 works are presented in a thematic and chronological context that describes developments in Nordic painting from the Romantic era to the advent of Symbolism, and at the same time showcases decisive shifts in how art uses nature. From the patriotic, grand, and Romantic landscapes of the 1840s to the Impressionists records of specific moments experienced in the open air and onwards to the introspective landscapes of the souls created by the Symbolists in the decades surround the year 1900.

The exhibition represents a large-scale, pan-Nordic collaboration between Statens Museum for Kunst and the national galleries in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Oslo, where it has already been on display. Early September saw the end of the exhibition's run at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and now Statens Museum for Kunst marks the finale of the travelling exhibition. The display has garnered excellent reviews on its travels, e.g. in the acclaimed art journal The Burlington Magazine, where art historian John House says, "Viewers of the exhibition will find themselves thrillingly infused by the spell of nature, or rather by many and diverse spells, and will find their eyes opened to many worlds as landscapes."

The exhibition is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated 312-page book. Essays are contributed by Leena Ahtola-Moorhouse, Philip Conisbee, Janne Gallen-Kallela-Sirén, Torsten Gunnarsson, Peter Nørgaard Larsen, Magne Malmanger, Klaus P. Mortensen, and Annika Waenerberg.