Nikolai Astrup in His Own Words

one of the painters who are most attached to a place and to the soil

one of the saddest places in Jølster

weakness for experimenting with all possible and impossible plants that can grow here in the mountain village – even those that cannot grow here – most of my attempts finish up in this latter category …

I have attempted to express something of the sense of nature that overwhelms one when wandering about in Jølster’s landscape – these vapours and damp soil saturated with age-old paganism and prehistoric religions – this soil full of legend – these predominantly raw colours have more value for my art than merely as subjects for my pictures.

I am perhaps one of the painters in this country who is most rooted in place and the land – and have staked my reputation on remaining unaffected by the many art movements

The picture Midsummer Eve is among the first that I painted – The young girl staring at the fire and most of the landscape I had painted before I enrolled in the painting school in Christiania (Oslo), before I had seen any art

My first pictures I painted with ordinary house paint colours and one of the first attempts occurred on Midsummer Eve and so I attempted to paint this little girl and the bonfire

I do not know whether you are acquainted with ‘the modern art of woodblock printing’– ‘colour woodcuts’ and ‘black-and-white woodcuts’. It is an art form that interests me greatly. It comes originally from Japan, but is adopted in a somewhat different form here in Europe, one that is better suited to our art. Here in this country, Munch and I are two of the few who have tried our hand at this ‘modern woodcut’, as it is called in contrast to the previously known wood-engravings or what is also called: Xylography (almost a mechanical process). Munch is very enthused about my woodcuts and has previously bought 3 of my things.

In my own mind, they [the woodcuts] are too much like experiments. Nor have I really made use of the woodblock technique as it is usually employed by modern painters. I work in my own way, and several of my impressions can appear to be more paintings that woodcuts and this is, of course, really a fault – that is also why I have not considered exhibiting them. Some of them also require a lot of work to print, as I use 5–6 blocks for each impression.

… each “retouche” is unfortunate – as a single stroke with the paintbrush is enough to alter the mood of the picture, as it becomes a different style to that which is printed.

you communicate better with him than I can – you find words for the mystique of a summer’s night and golden light etc.