Knut Ljøgodt, Dr. Philos in Art History and co-founder of the Nordic Institute of Art (since 2017), has brought Northern Norwegian landscape painting back into the spotlight, including exhibitions of Peder Balke and Lars Hertervig both in Norway and abroad. “Timelass Relevance: Classical Landscape Art from the North” is about the Institute’s latest exhibitions.
On Friday, February 21 this year, the exhibition Hertervig-Hill, Dream and Reality opened at the Stavanger Art Museum, showcasing selected works by Lars Hertervig (1830-1902) and Carl Fredrik Hill (1849-1911).
This exhibition was previously displayed at Prince Eugen’s Waldemarsudde in Stockholm in the fall of 2024 until January 25 this year. It is organized by the two art museums in collaboration with the Nordic Institute of Art. The project curators are Karin Sidén, Hanne Beate Ueland, and Knut Ljøgodt.
The exhibition featuring Hertervig’s expressive nature paintings and Hill’s visionary landscapes attracted more than 36,000 visitors when it was displayed at Prince Eugen’s Waldemarsudde in Stockholm last autumn.
Timeless Relevance: Classical Landscape Art from the North, article continues below image.
The Nordic Institute of Art was founded in Oslo as an independent organization aimed at stimulating research on Nordic art history, including from the Arctic, within an international context. It is led by Dr. Knut Ljøgodt, a Norwegian art historian with extensive experience from institutions such as the National Gallery in Oslo and the Northern Norwegian Art Museum in Tromsø. The institute’s core activities include collaborating with museums and other institutions both in Norway and internationally to organize exhibitions, conferences, and other events.
The Nordic Institute of Art has been involved in exhibitions such, Edward Burne-Jones: The Pre-Raphaelites and the North at Prince Eugen’s Waldemarsudde, Stockholm (2019), Visionary Romantics: Balke, Lucas, Hertervig at the Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid / Stavanger Art Museum (2023), Peder Balke, The Spell of the Arctic at the Finnish National Gallery – Sinebrychoff Art Museum (2023), as well as The Atlantic: Myths, Art, and Science at Henie Onstad Art Center (2024). Previously, Dr. Ljøgodt has also initiated and co-curated projects like Peder Balke at the National Gallery in London (2014-15).
Daily Scandinavian meets art historian Knut Ljøgodt at the Nordic Institute’s library in Oslo for a brief conversation about his interest in Northern Norwegian art, just before he leaves for Seville in Andalusia.
Timeless Relevance: Classical Landscape Art from the North, article continues below image.
Ljøgodt’s interest in Peder Balke intensified after living in Northern Norway for many years while serving as the director of the Northern Norwegian Art Museum in Tromsø. He led the museum for eight years and also worked as a curator for five years, connecting him to the museum for a total of 13 years.
In 2014, under the auspices of the Northern Norwegian Art Museum, an initiative was taken to organize a Peder Balke exhibition in London at the National Gallery, with Knut Ljøgodt as the driving force behind the project. At the Balke exhibition in London, Finnish museum director Kirsti Eskelinen was in attendance and was highly impressed. Several years later, in the fall of 2024, in collaboration with the Nordic Institute of Art, Peder Balke’s paintings were exhibited in the Finnish capital. The Balke exhibition in Helsinki focused on Arctic paintings, with several of the displayed works belonging to the Gundersen collection in Norway.
In connection with this exhibition, the book Peder Balke, Förtrollad av Arktis (The Spell of the Arctic) was published by the Finnish National Gallery, Sinebrychoff Art Museum.
The back cover of the book describes Balke as follows:
“The Norwegian painter Peder Balke (1804-1877) is one of the most fascinating pioneers of Romantic painting in Northern Europe. In 1832, he traveled to Norway’s northernmost regions, which inspired him for the rest of his life. Balke worked with impressions from the Arctic landscape, the mountains, the bright summer nights, and the Northern Lights. His paintings depict a world that few people, even today, are familiar with and which is threatened by climate change.”
What is it about Peder Balke’s art that inspires you, Knut Ljøgodt?
“Balke was the first Norwegian artist to travel to Northern Norway in 1832 to paint the Arctic landscape. He traveled by ship and experienced hurricanes. He was also attacked by swarms of mosquitoes. Balke was concerned with depicting the Northern Norwegian landscape as part of nation-building after 1814, which was a central issue in society at the time. Art and literature were important tools in creating a shared understanding of Norway as a strong and distinct identity.
Balke never visited Svalbard,” Ljøgodt explains. “He painted Arctic nature in Finnmark with a visionary and somewhat abstract expression. Balke had a distinctive artistic style, which he developed early in his career. Originally, Balke was the son of a servant from Helgøya in Mjøsa, and grew up in Toten. He attended the Royal Drawing School in Oslo and was an art student in Stockholm. Later he also studied with the famous Norwegian painter J.C. Dahl in Dresden.”
How do you organize this work?
“The Nordic Institute of Art has an Advisory Board and several profiled colleagues abroad – organized as Associate Fellows – with whom I maintain close dialogue and who support our work.”
What are your success criteria for promoting Balke and Hertervig art?
“To succeed in bringing 19th-century Norwegian painting abroad, you need a solid project and must think outside the box. By sharing knowledge and considering new perspectives, it is possible to gain support for projects. I was an advisory curator for the Balke exhibition in New York in 2017 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and together we also organized a conference at Scandinavia House. Later, the Institute helped organize a Balke exhibition in Paris at Cháteau de Fontainebleau, which provided me with many valuable contacts that have helped increase attention around Balke. As director of the Nordic Institute of Art, I also maintain a good dialogue with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, collaborating with individual embassies abroad.”
The Hertervig – Hill, Dream and Reality exhibition runs until May 18, 2025.
Facts about Knut Ljøgodt:
Dr. Philos, Norwegian art historian, and director of the Nordic Institute of Art. He has previously served as curator at the National Gallery in Oslo, director of the Northern Norwegian Art Museum in Tromsø, and founder and director of Kunsthall Svalbard in Longyearbyen (now “Nordover”). He studied art history at the University of Oslo, The Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and the Norwegian Institute in Rome and earned his doctorate from the University of Tromsø. Ljøgodt’s research focuses on Nordic and European art from the 19th and 20th centuries, including Romantic landscape painting, history painting, and Symbolism. His publications include the monograph Peder Balke: Sublime North (Skira, 2020).
Timeless Relevance: Classical Landscape Art from the North, written by written by Anne Marit Muri. Muri is a former editor of, among others, Magasinet Kunst, and has written reports on art and culture for a number of years.
She is the author and initiator of the book, Kunstnerliv, portraits of 19 contemporary artists, which was published in 2018, voted the year’s most beautiful art book in 2019 by Grafill. She is also the author of the book, Det gåtefulle lyset, Svalbard, which was published in autumn 2022, by the publisher Utenfor Allfarvei in Harstad.
Muri is educated at the University of Oslo and Bergen. She is currently working on a master’s degree in media development, under the auspices of Oslo Met, in addition to developing new book projects and is a writer for several magazines. She is a regular writer on fine arts, culture and lifestyle for Daily Scandinavian.
Recent articles published on Daily Scandinavian by Anne Marit Muri:
Ramme Gård: A Magical Estate Near Hvitsten
Happy Foods in Oslo: Colorful & Refreshing
Images of all paintings © Dag Myrstrand/Stavanger kunstmuseum/MUST
Feature image (on top): Autumn by Lars Hertevig
Portraith photos of Dr. Philos Knut Ljøgodt © Tor Kjolberg/Daily Scandinavian