Nødhavn Ved Norskekysten
 |
|
| Artist | Hans Gude |
|---|---|
| Year | 1873 |
| Type | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 182 cm × 262 cm (72 in × 103 in) |
| Location | Private Collection |
Nødhavn Ved Norskekysten (English translation: Port of Refuge on the Norwegian Coast[1] or Norwegian Harbor of Refuge[2]) is a painting by Norwegian romanticist painter Hans Gude completed in 1873.[3]
Exhibition history
The painting was first shown at the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873 where it won a gold medal.[1] It was later displayed at an international exhibition of art at the Academy of Art in Berlin in 1896 while Gude was a professor at the Academy, and yet later still it was shown in Dresden in 1904, the year after Gude's death.[1]
Scene and style
The painting shows a realistic rendering of a storm hitting a Norwegian harbor, with a brig stranded in the distant breakers.[1] The painting is divided into a foreground, where women and children watch the rescue effort; a middle ground, where various moored ships bob in the strong waves; and a background, where wavelike rocks enclose the refuge point and bring the eye down to the stranded brig.[1] The colors used are predominantly the blue-grey of the sea and the beige of the reflections on the sea which serve to unify the piece.[1] Various elements of the scene including the waterfront buildings, the groups of figures, and the departing rowboat, would be reused by Gude in later works.[1]
Ownership
In 1875 the painting was purchased by the Bremen Art Society, although Gude incorrectly identifies them as the Stadtgalerie Bremen in his notes about the sale.[1] In 1907 the painting was transferred to the Kunsthalle Bremen.[1] In 1920 the painting was auctioned off due in part to changing tastes in art and the painting's large size (4.78 m2 or 51.5 sq ft[3]) which made it difficult to store.[1] In 1932 the painting was auctioned off again in Oslo where it was purchased by its current owner.[1]
