Artist Stories

Meet Harald Sohlberg, A Solitary Genius

Zuzanna Stańska 14 March 2023 min Read

Harald Sohlberg was a Norwegian painter whose works can be described as Neo-Romantic. He is particularly known for his depictions of the mountains of Rondane and the town of Røros. Perhaps his most widely recognized painting, in several variations, is Winter’s Night in Rondane, currently featured at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, Norway. Unfortunately, Sohlberg’s work remains fairly unknown internationally, although many of his significant paintings are in Norwegian public collections.

Harald Sohlberg, Winter Night in the Mountains, 1914, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, Norway.
Harald Sohlberg, Winter’s Night in Rondane, 1914, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway.

Harald Sohlberg (1869–1935) came from a large, middle-class family with eight children. He did not finish school and instead apprenticed with a decorative painter from age 16. He was very committed to the Romantic idea of the artist as a solitary genius and tended to isolate himself for large periods of time and devote himself entirely to his paintings. Just like his fellow Norwegian painter, Edvard Munch, he denied the influence of other contemporary artists on his own style. He relegated the origins of his artistic inspirations to his own psyche.

Harald Sohlberg, Summer Night, 1899, Nasjonalmuseet
Harald Sohlberg, Summer Night, 1899, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway.

After Sohlberg’s death, Pola Gauguin, another Scandinavian artist and one of Paul Gauguin‘s youngest children, wrote in his obituary that the man lived alone and was later forgotten, but not for long:

A name which was famous in its day. […] The coldness which he helped surround it with, will thaw.

Harald Sohlberg, Fisherman's Cottage, 1906, Art Institute of Chicago
Harald Sohlberg, Fisherman’s Cottage, 1906, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.

The function of lines in Sohlberg’s paintings was to express feelings. They could be lonely, down-to-earth, or melancholic. According to the artist, art should be developed in accordance with nature, an artist’s dialogue with it.

Harald Sohlberg, Spring Evening by the Akershus Fortress, Oslo, c. 1900, Oslo kommunes kunstsamling, Oslo, Norway.
Harald Sohlberg, Spring Evening by the Akershus Fortress, Oslo, c. 1900. WikiArt.

As an old man, Sohlberg said:

It is probably true that for simple and naïve reasons my works have aroused sympathy. But I maintain that they have by no means been properly understood for the pictorial and spiritual values on which I have been working consistently throughout the years.

What Sohlberg really longed for was a true understanding of his art that was pictorial, spiritual, and consistent.

Recommended

John Singer Sargent in atelier Artist Stories

Six Things You Might Not Know About John Singer Sargent

There’s no question that John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) was an artistic superstar. Everyone knows his most famous painting Madame X, but do...

Alexandra Kiely 16 March 2023

Artist Stories

Broncia Koller-Pinell: An Artist Lost to Time

If you are like me, it is entirely probable that you have never heard of Broncia Koller-Pinell (1863–1934). It has nothing to do with the quality...

Rachel Witte 27 January 2023

Yves Klein, Peinture de Feu sans titre, 1961 Artist Stories

7 Not Just Blue Masterpieces by Yves Klein

Although he only lived 34 years, it could seem that Yves Klein lived more than one life. This French artist initially devoted himself to the...

Camilla de Laurentis 26 January 2023

john singer sargent madame x studies Artist Stories

Exploring John Singer Sargent’s Unknown Drawings

John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) is primarily known and celebrated for his massive virtuoso portraits of late 19th and early 20th-century American,...

Alexandra Kiely 12 January 2023