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Stavanger Art Museum
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Intense effort to secure "Sørover"

The Frida Hansen tapestry must be returned in November

The tapestry Sørover / Southward can now be experienced at Stavanger Art Museum. It arrived in Norway this spring—for the very first time since the early 1900s—and was part of the major summer exhibition From the Roots, featuring Frida Hansen and Kitty Kielland.

Its journey back to Stavanger has been long and shrouded in mystery. Southward has lived dangerously.

Discovered in a container

The tapestry was purchased directly from Frida Hansen by Berthe Aske-Bergh, a woman from Stavanger who had emigrated to the United States. Before leaving Norway, she had studied under Hansen. In the US, Aske-Bergh used Sørover to showcase Norwegian textile art of the highest calibre, including in lectures and newspaper articles. The last known public display of Sørover was at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 1931. After that, it vanished and was considered lost.

Then, just a few years ago, it resurfaced—in a rubbish skip —at the estate of a deceased antiques dealer in Maine. Rug dealer Peter Pap was handling the estate and discovered Frida Hansen’s signature. He is now negotiating the tapestry’s future on behalf of the current owner. Stavanger Art Museum has Southward on loan until mid-November.

“We are working intensely to raise funds so that Sørover can remain in Norway,” says Hanne Beate Ueland, Director of Stavanger Art Museum.

Belongs here

Time is short, and the monumental work by Frida Hansen is estimated to be worth approximately NOK 7.5 million.

Author Linn Ullmann has become deeply involved in efforts to secure Sørover for Norway. She is currently working on an extensive book series about female artists. Across five volumes, ten women artists will be highlighted—including Frida Hansen. Her research has also led Ullmann to search for another of Hansen’s tapestries believed to be lost: The Five Wise and the Five Foolish Virgins from 1900.

Stavanger Art Museum has applied to foundations for support in acquiring this major work by Frida Hansen, and private individuals have also been invited to contribute.

“We are holding out hope that a solution can be found. Sørover is a piece of Norwegian cultural heritage. It is woven from yarn dyed with plants from Jæren and Ryfylke. We truly believe it belongs here,” says Hanne Beate Ueland, who is working tirelessly to secure funding for the purchase of this beautiful tapestry.

Frida Hansen (1855–1931)

A tapestry artist from Stavanger, Frida Hansen worked within both Norwegian weaving traditions and the Art Nouveau movement. She is regarded as one of Norway’s foremost textile artists and enjoyed a significant international career.

She participated in the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900 she was awarded a gold medal—marking her major breakthrough.

Hansen developed her own weaving technique, known as the “transparency technique,” for which she secured a patent.

Her works are represented internationally. In Norway, they are held by institutions such as the National Museum and KODE. Stavanger Art Museum owns ten of her pieces, including the monumental tapestry Semper Vadentes from 1905.
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