Gudvangen

Thomas Fearnley was the foremost Norwegian landscape painter to follow in the naturalistic vein of his elder contemporary Johan Christian Dahl (1788–1857). An itinerant artist, Fearnley left Norway for the first time at the age of eighteen in 1821; for the remaining two decades of his life, he traveled all over Europe, returning to his native country intermittently. His final sojourn there lasted two years, from 1838 until 1840, when he married and moved to Amsterdam. In the summer of 1839, he visited his birthplace of Frederikshald. He set out from there on a sketching expedition in the western part of the country together with the Düsseldorf-based painters Andreas Achenbach (1815–1910) and Christian Breslauer (1802–1882). Staying in Balholm, about seventy miles northeast of Bergen, they passed through Graven, Valdres, Sogn (where they encountered Dahl), Voss, and Hardanger.[1]

On July 22, Fearnley made this plein-air study of mountains and plunging waterfalls at Gudvangen, situated at the end of the Nærøyfjord, where the Nærøydalselvi River empties into the fjord. He pushed his brush through the wet paint with demonstrable speed and assuredness, allowing the brush marks to convey the geological formations of the fjord’s walls. He then inscribed the place name, date, and his initials into the wet paint using the butt-end of his brush or another stylus. Although this is a sketch and not a finished picture, it is entirely characteristic of the subject matter with which Fearnley made his reputation during his brief life. Dahl praised Fearnley’s plein-air sketches: after the artist’s death he wrote that these were "better than his finished paintings, for in them he gave of his true self, as he was and as he felt when face-to-face with nature."[2]

Asher Miller 2020

[1] "Chronology" in Ann Sumner and Greg Smith eds., In Front of Nature: The European Landscapes of Thomas Fearnley, exh. cat., Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, 2012, p. 113.
[2] Dahl’s letter to the Board of the Nationalgalleriet in Christiania (Oslo) after Fearnley’s death, originally published in Vedastine Aubert, "Breve fra Thomas Fearnley til J. C. C. Dahl," Kunst og Kutur 12 (1925), pp. 2ff, as translated in David Jackson, "Fearnley, Italy and the oil sketch tradition," in Sumner and Smith eds. 2012, pp. 56–57 n. 20; see also Marie Lødrup Bang, Johan Christian Dahl, 1788–1857: Life and Works, Oslo, 1987, vol. 1, p. 245.

Inscription: Monogrammed and dated (lower right): Gudvangen / 22 July 39 TF

the artist's son, Thomas Fearnley, Oslo (until d. 1927); by descent through his family (from 1927; sold to Sveaas); Christen Sveaas, Oslo (until 2020)

Christiania Kunstforening. "Thomas Fearnley, 1802–1842: Udstilling af hans Arbeider," February 1903, no. ? (as in the collection of Fearnley's son) [it is thought that the number on the exhibition label, 123, which is found on the back of the painting, does not correspond to no. 123 in the exhibition checklist].

Kristiania [Oslo]. Blomqvist. "Thomas Fearnley 1802–1842," August 1924, no. 79 (as "Fra Gudvangen," lent by Thomas Fearnley [the artist's son]).

Oslo. Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst. "Thomas Fearnley - Européeren," April 22–August 20, 1995, no. 80 (as "Gudvangen," dated 1839).

Gifts of Art: The Met's 150th Anniversary. New York, 2020, pp. 194–95.

Alexandre Lafore. "Un chef-d'œuvre du réalisme nordique offert au Metropolitan Museum." Tribune de l'art (September 7, 2020) [https://www.latribunedelart.com/un-chef-d-oeuvre-du-realisme-nordique-offert-au-metropolitan-museum].