“Farmhouse at Balestrand”
Today, on to Norway…
“Farmhouse at Balestrand” is an oil on canvas painting mounted on cardboard by the Norwegian landscape artist, Amaldus Nielsen, from 1865. Nielsen was associated with the Naturalist art movement. He is often recognized as the first naturalist painter in Norway. He painted this just after returning home to Norway after attending art school at the Düsseldorf Academy in Germany.
In this painting, Nielsen depicts a traditional Scandinavian farmhouse, with wooden siding and a grass turf roof. The Sognefjorden fjord, the longest in Norway, is depicted behind the structure. Several birds can be seen enjoying the waters. A small tree frames the right side of the painting. The entire scene is verdant and green, showing the lushness of Norway in the summer.
Balestrand was a small county in southwest Norway located on the north shore of the Sognefjorden, at the junction of the Sognefjorden and Fjærlandsfjorden fjords. It became a popular destination for artists in the mid-nineteenth century, as they loved to paint the local scenery. Tourists soon followed. Today, the area’s most important economic drivers are both tourism and fishing. In 2020, the municipality of Balestrand was dissolved.
“Farmhouse at Balestrand” is currently on display and in the collections of The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, Norway.
For more on Amaldus Nielsen, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
