Collection: Hedevig Thorine Christiane Lund

Hedevig Thorine Christiane Lund received her first education in Stockholm where her father was a minister in the Norwegian government. In 1845, she made her debut at an exhibition in Børslocalet in Christiania with six pictures, both independent compositions, genre pictures with female protagonists, and copies after Adolph Tidemand. She took a further impression of Tidemand during her studies in Düsseldorf, where she belonged to his closest circle of friends. Carl Sohn nevertheless became more decisive for her development as a portrait painter. A Study Head from this time (1869, Trøndelag Art Gallery) is a good example of the softly painterly, sentimental and Italianizing portrait style that Sohn was an exponent of. L's first large portrait, of her mother Abel Marie Erichsen painted in Düsseldorf 1846 and exhibited at Christiania Kunstforening in February 1847, was her definitive breakthrough. The portrait shows L's art at its best, confident drawing and muted colouring, a relaxed, lively and mildly idealizing expression. There was a need for salonfähige portrait painters in Christiania and L. had relatively active years until 1854. She painted portraits of civil servants and women of the better-off bourgeoisie. The highlight was orders for the Eidsvollsgalleriet, where the portraits of Gustav P. Blom (1853), Ole Rasmussen Apenes (1854) and Hans Haslum (1854) are the best, with their good drawing and sure characteristics. She has also executed copies of portraits. A small group of late romantic genre pictures, women in folk costume and the like, with a sentimental touch, are also from this period. After 1854, L. virtually stopped painting for 20–25 years. An exception is the slightly stiff portrait of his spouse Bernt Lund (1870) and Jesus in Gethsemane, the altarpiece of Stokken church, Aust-Agder (1867/68). An identical altarpiece in Våler church, Solør (1865) was commissioned from Bernt Lund, but presented by the spouses together, and it is likely that L. executed this as well. It wasn't until the late 70s that L. started painting again. Some landscapes from Sem farm, where the family lived, date from this late period. Landscape study from Borrevannet (1878, National Gallery, Oslo) is a good example of the renewal that had taken place in her painting. It is an open-air painting done with a light palette, but with a conscious composition and a brushed surface.