Lars Hertervig
The painter of light
Lars Hertervig (1830–1902) is one of Norway's most significant artists and the most original contributor to Norwegian Romantic landscape painting.
In the landscapes of the 1850s from Sunnhordland and Ryfylke, Hertervig emerges as a prominent representative of the Düsseldorf School in Norwegian art history. Due to mental illness, Hertervig was declared legally incapacitated in 1858, losing both financial support and contact with the art community. Nevertheless, he continued to paint. Between 1865 and 1867, he had the financial means to work on larger oil canvases. The result was a series of contemplative landscape depictions featuring primeval forests, fjords, and chalk-white fair-weather clouds beneath a clear blue sky.
Throughout his career, Hertervig worked with watercolor and gouache on paper. Initially, these works were intended as studies, but from 1867 to 1902, his production consisted exclusively of works on paper. Hertervig painted light-filled landscapes on tobacco paper and on handmade paper crafted from wallpaper, newspapers, and wrapping paper. In some works, he deliberately integrated the seams of the paper into the landscape composition. His unique way of linking the materiality of the paper to the colors has no parallel in Norwegian art history.
Stavanger Art Museum manages the largest and most important collection of works by Lars Hertervig and is currently exhibiting a selection of his oil paintings in the museum’s permanent collection display.