Museum and another museum
bleikdalsá
Some time ago a friend of mine and I decided to get our heads around Icelandic culture and art. So lately we have been giving museums, shows and theatres the pleasure of our presence.
This weekend we decided to start with an exhibition of Russian history and clothing during the Romanov period. This family ruled Russia for 304 years(1613-1918). Names one should know Peter I/Peter the Great. He was apparently over 2 meters (I think that makes nearly 7 feet tall!) and he and his wife Katarina were very interested in art and collected many paintings from all over Europe. Their palace was pretty amazing as well. Most importantly, Peter build the town St. Petersburg and declared it the capital of Russia through his reign. He got a French architect to design it. It is said that St.Petersburg is a very beautiful city with so many different European influences.
Moving on...today we went to see the Kjarval house. Jóhannes S. Kjarval (1885-1972)is one of the most known Icelandic artists. And he is just amazing. He is soo Icelandic and his paintings reflect its people and landscape. He also belived in hidden people, elfs and spirits and in some of his paintings you can see a face in the mountain and the closer and longer you look there is always something hidden.
Can´t wait to discover more of him!
Bored you enough? Here is a little fact about Christmas: Christmas cards!
In december 1843, some guy called Henry Cole, realized that he had forgotten to write Christmas letters to friends and relatives. There was little time left, so he asked his painter-friend if he could draw him some sort of card that expressed the proper sentiments "A merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!" And so they were born and now it is a must. In Iceland you could get Danish and German Christmas cards around 1890. 1905 or so Icelandic Christmas and New Year cards appeared on the market.
check this link if you wanna see the first Christmas card!
10 Comments:
You are my link to my Icelandic heritage right now and for that I thank you!
Very interesting facts and I am fascinated by the artist. Is that his art you have posted?
Hah! I am the first to comment!
And one more thing. Thanks for dropping by my site! It was a sweet surprise...
Yes, the picture above is one of Jóhannes S. Kjarval´s paintings. He was very inspired by the Icelandic nature and used to take a tent, go into the countryside and stayed there night and day to capture whatever took his liking. If you google his name you´ll find many more of his works and it is worth the time-in my humble opinion!
That was really interesting and I'm going to look for Kjarval. He sounds like my kind of painter. I bet eCards were invented the same way.
Doug, I think you might be right. Laziness makes us great inventors!
You just taught a history teacher some pretty cool stuff. I'll be sure and take credit for it, though. :)
I just found Kjarval on the web. Fantastic.
Fred, you are welcome to all my knowledge about history. Believe you me, there is not much of it ;) But I am expnading...
Doug, I am glad you like him. Look for a painting that is called Snæfellness...it is my favourite.
I couldn't find that painting by name but there were a lot of Kjarval images without titles. What does it look like. Is it a snowscape?
Yeah, it is the mountain and vulcano I see when I look out of the window. It is a snow covered painting. I´ll find it for you and let you know!
Hiya ##NAME##, just thought I'd say great post titled ##TITLE##. I'm looking for ##LINK## and I ended up here accidentally but I will make sure I return soon. Looking for in addition will keep me busy for a few hours.
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