About the original: Among Thomas Fearnley's paintings with Swiss motifs, the Grindelwald glacier is the most significant. From a grassy hill in the foreground, we look up at the valley floor which is filled by a glacier. Nature observations made on the spot are edited into a magnificent composition. The pencil sketch drawn in August 1835, which is a starting point for the painting, shows a barren landscape in front of the glacier. The large trees, which make up such an important part of the picture as a whole, are based on tree studies done in Scheideck a week later.

In the painting, the artist has made the motif more dramatic than in the paper drawing. The mountain sides are steeper and are highlighted using light and shadow, while the clouds envelop some of the peaks in the background. The contrast to eternal ice and snow in the desolate valley stretch is enhanced by the lush foreground vegetation where the sheep graze under the supervision of the shepherd. The artist emphasizes the wild and inaccessible in nature by letting a bird of prey soar over the glacier. He allows himself a little joke by painting a fern tassel (English: Fearn) next to his signature.

It has been pointed out that the composition and the balanced direction of the landscape masses are reminiscent of the Düsseldorf painter Johann Wilhelm Schirmer (1807–1863), whom Fearnley met during his stay in Switzerland. The marked contrast between warm and cold colors was also perceived in romanticism as a symbol of the confrontation between life and death.

Before the painting was completed, it was exhibited at the Salon in Paris in 1836. Together with two paintings by JC Dahl, this and Fearnley's Labrofossen were the first paintings by Norwegian artists to be purchased by the National Gallery.

Date: 1835

Other titles: View from Grindelwald in Switzerland (ENG)

Designation:

Painting

Material and technique: Oil on cardboard glued on cardboard

Technique:

Oil

Material:

Cardboard sheet

Paper

Goal:

21 x 27 cm

Subject words:

Visual arts

Classification:

532 - Visual arts

Acquisition: Gift 1891 from the Association to the National Gallery's extension

Inventory no.: NG.M.00386

Registration level: Single object

Owner and collection: The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Visual Art Collections

In the painting, the artist has made the motif more dramatic than in the paper drawing. The mountain sides are steeper and are highlighted using light and shadow, while the clouds envelop some of the peaks in the background. The contrast to eternal ice and snow in the desolate valley stretch is enhanced by the lush foreground vegetation where the sheep graze under the supervision of the shepherd. The artist emphasizes the wild and inaccessible in nature by letting a bird of prey soar over the glacier. He allows himself a little joke by painting a fern tassel (English: Fearn) next to his signature.

It has been pointed out that the composition and the balanced direction of the landscape masses are reminiscent of the Düsseldorf painter Johann Wilhelm Schirmer (1807–1863), whom Fearnley met during his stay in Switzerland. The marked contrast between warm and cold colors was also perceived in romanticism as a symbol of the confrontation between life and death.

Before the painting was completed, it was exhibited at the Salon in Paris in 1836. Together with two paintings by JC Dahl, this and Fearnley's Labrofossen were the first paintings by Norwegian artists to be purchased by the National Gallery. Date: 1835

Other titles: View from Grindelwald in Switzerland (ENG)

Designation:

Painting

Material and technique: Oil on cardboard glued on cardboard

Technique:

Oil

Material:

Cardboard sheet

Paper

Goal:

21 x 27 cm

Subject words:

Visual arts

Classification:

532 - Visual arts

Acquisition: Gift 1891 from the Association to the National Gallery's extension

Inventory no.: NG.M.00386

Registration level: Single object

Owner and collection: The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Visual Art Collections