Street in Røros in Winter

1903 · Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo

landscape

Harald Sohlberg had his first encounter with Rondane in 1899. His experience of winter in the mountains was decisive in his further development as an artist. He painted many motifs from Rondane, and indeed the most successful work of his career was Winter Night in the Mountains, which on several occasions has been named Norway's "national painting".

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About the Artist

Harald Oskar Sohlberg

1869 – 1935

Norwegian painter and printmaker. Sohlberg decided to be a painter when young, but his father wished him to follow a thorough training as a craftsman. Sohlberg therefore enrolled at the Royal School of Drawing in Kristiania (Christiania until 1877, now Oslo) in 1885 under the interior designer Wilhelm Krogh (1829-1913) and stayed at the school until 1890. Subsequently, he attended night classes under the graphic artist and painter Johan Nordhagen (1856-1956) both in the autumn of 1906 and also from 1911 to 1917, when he concentrated on printmaking. Sohlberg painted his first pictures while staying in the Valdres region to the north-west of Kristiania in summer 1889. The following summer he painted with Sven Jörgensen (1861-1940) at Slagen, and in autumn 1891 he was a pupil of Erik Werenskiold and Eilif Peterssen in Kristiania. For some months during the winter of 1891-2 Sohlberg attended Kristian Zahrtmann's art school in Copenhagen. He also studied for four months in 1894 under Harriet Backer and Eilif Peterssen. Sohlberg is particularly known for his depictions of the mountains of Rondane and the town of Roros. His perhaps most well-recognized painting is his 'Winter's Night in Rondane' from 1913-14.

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