Eva Langaas (1940 - 2016) was an artist with international appeal and whose graphics are characterized by sensual forms in lush color play. Langaas was originally trained as a textile artist, but many years of heavy physical work in the textile profession contributed to her starting to work with graphics and paintings. Her lithographs nevertheless bear traces of a textile artist.

Langaas had a charisma and an ability to create well-being around her, which is reflected in her colorful lithographs. The motifs and color surfaces provide room for reflection, and to go on a journey of discovery in space. Her nature pictures are dramatic and lie on the border between the abstract and figurative, often with elements of well-known symbols. Eva Langaas debuted at the autumn exhibition in Oslo in 1972 and had her first solo exhibition at the prestigious gallery in Helland Kungsträdgården in Stockholm a few years later. She has also had exhibitions in Rome, Geneva, Singapore, New York and Paris.

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Frithjof Smith-Hald

Girl with a carriage and a pretzel. Frithjof Smith-Hald. 1887. Digitalt Museum Dag Andre Ivarsøy/National Museum. Reproduced with permission
S.-H. began to use both of his parents' surnames early on. He was to become a businessman, but soon decided on an artistic career and received his education at the Drawing School and JF Eckersberg's Painting School in Kristiania 1865 - 70. Christian Skredsvig has given an enjoyable portrayal of him during these years. Then followed studies in Karlsruhe and Düsseldorf 1871 - 78. A visit to Paris just after New Year's 1876 opened his eyes to the new French art, and S.-H. moved to Paris in 1878, where he readily adopted French salon realism with its gray-toned value painting and folk motifs. S.-H. often obtained these from Norway, and he preferred to paint beach and seascapes with staffage of fishermen and sailors. He often painted atmospheric pictures with moonlight and sunsets in summer and winter. He obtained other motifs from the French and English Channel coasts. These pictures became very popular, and in the early 1980s S.-H. represented Norwegian landscape art almost alone at the Paris Salon, where he participated annually. He received favorable criticism from French art critics and was purchased by a number of the country's museums, including some German and Dutch ones. Thus, the museum in Lille acquired Steamship Station in Norway (1880), The Hague Winter Evening by the Sea (1882), Reims Summer Night in Norway (1888), Rouen Garnrensning, Louvre, Paris The Old Fishing Net, La Rochelle Garnet, Bordeaux October Evening in Norway, Montpellier Home from Work. Other works came to Boulogne and Le Havre, to German collections, e.g. in Cologne (Home from Fishing, 1880) and Danzig and to the Agnew Gallery, London (Morning in Cornwall and Anxiety). S.-H. also sold to large private collections in Paris, London and the USA. In Norway, there are relatively few works by S.-H., a good deal was destroyed when his son's house in Bergen burned down.

No information about art.

Terje Grøstad was a Norwegian graphic artist from Seljord in Telemark. His father was a bookseller, and Terje Grøstad grew up in Drammen. The family settled in Oslo in 1945. That same year, Grøstad became a student at the Norwegian School of Crafts and Art and Design under Karl Høgberg.

The painter Nikolai Astrup worked from around 1900 to the late 1920s. He lived and worked in Jølster in Sogn og Fjordane, the village where he grew up, and his paintings and graphics are strongly influenced by nature and the rural environment. He developed a rich and personal art with a coloristic style, marked by a mystical and emphasized experience of nature. The painting of a midsummer bonfire from 1902–12 is among his best-known works. His home, Astruptunet south of Jølstervatnet, is now a museum.

He was a student of Harriet Backer 1899–1901 and the following year of Christian Krohg in Paris. Apart from brief trips to England, Spain and Algeria, Astrup lived from 1905 until his death on his farm in Jølster.

In intimate interaction with nature and the distinctive rural environment, Nikolai Astrup created a colorfully rich, strongly personal art, filled with a mystically emphasized, almost pantheistic experience of nature. A deep romantic tone characterizes many of his early works, such as Vårkveldsol (1902) and the various editions of Jonsokbål, from the years 1902–12.

This painting is a posthumous reproduction of a painting that can be found in the Rasmus Meyer collections, at Kode in Bergen. You can read more about the original in their digital catalog: Nikolai Astrup, Kollen, Oil on canvas, 1905 - 1906. Rasmus Meyer collections, Kode Art museums and composers' homes.

Astrup's art is particularly well represented in the Bergen Art Museum, where a very extensive collection of paintings, drawings and prints is on long-term deposit by the DNB Savings Bank Foundation. Astrup is also represented with a number of key works in the Rasmus Meyer Collections. Later, his art became lighter in tone, often lyrically dreamy as in the many spring evening paintings and lush green summer landscapes. They often have a certain naive feel, partly inspired by Henri Rousseau.

Astrup was a pioneer in his color woodcuts. They are available in many color variations, often retouched with a brush: Bird on Stone, Fox Bells, Soleinatt, Plognatten and Kvennagongsvatten. Astrup illustrated HE Kinck's Vestlandsnoveller (published 1942).

David Kindleberger (1834-1921)

American naval doctor and hobby painter who settled in Balestrand in the 20th century. David was born in Smithville, Oregon. After studying at Wittenberg College, he joined the USN in 1859 as a naval doctor. He had a long military career, and even after he retired he held several positions in the American Medical Service, including chief of the US Naval Hospital in Philadelphia and chief of the Naval Hospital in Guatemala (1914). There is little information given that Kindleberger was a painter, but for Balestrand he is best known as a painter. He naturally fell in with the other painters who built dragon-style villas here. He was not a great painter, but at his best he could create great works of e.g. Balestrand.

Tranås grew up in Førde, lived most of his life in Stryn, Nordfjord, and spent his last years in Lillehammer. He was a multifaceted talent, was considered a promising painter as a young man, and wrote three books in the years 1900-10. During his stay in Copenhagen, he gave a number of lectures in student societies and artists' associations. Tranås painted several dramatic figure compositions (Too Late, 1905, and Jernbyrden, before 1920), and a number of landscape motifs from Nord- and Sunnfjord, in which he alternated between a distinctive romantic mysticism and quiet and sensitively perceived nature studies.

(1900-1936)

Enblom was Swedish, and was born in Stockholm. Despite his Swedish origin, it is correct to call Enblom "Balholm painter". We know that Enblom stayed in Balestrand for long periods. He was, among other things, a good friend of Sigurd Kvikne, and was called Uncle Einar by the Kvikne family.

He was in Balestrand in the summer, and in Switzerland in the winter. Enblom died in Switzerland at only 36 years old.

No information about the artist.

(1863–1929)

Cooper was born in Svinton, Lancashire. He studied at the Westminster School of Art. Cooper first came to Norway in 1891, and we find his name in Kvikne's guest books on November 15th of that year. Cooper became a true Norwegian, and built "Cooperhuset" here in Balestrand. The house is in the dragon style, and can be found behind the expedition on the quay. Cooper married Mathilde Marie Valentinsen from Balestrand, and they had three children. His son William took up painting after his father, and was very fond of Balestrand. William had a son Julian, who is also a painter.

(1900-1936)

Enblom was Swedish, and was born in Stockholm. Despite his Swedish origin, it is correct to call Enblom "Balholm painter". We know that Enblom stayed in Balestrand for long periods. He was, among other things, a good friend of Sigurd Kvikne, and was called Uncle Einar by the Kvikne family.

He was in Balestrand in the summer, and in Switzerland in the winter. Enblom died in Switzerland at only 36 years old.

(1889 - 1968)

Printz was born in Nes in Romerike. He studied in Kristiania under, among others, Christian Krogh and Halfdan Strøm. He lived in Balestrand for quite a long time, and was well liked by the villagers. There are many pictures of Printz here in Balestrand.

(1889 - 1968)

Printz was born in Nes in Romerike. He studied in Kristiania under, among others, Christian Krogh and Halfdan Strøm. He lived in Balestrand for quite a long time, and was well liked by the villagers. There are many pictures of Printz here in Balestrand.

Johan Tenol-Tuxen was a painter from Vik in Sogn. He was mainly self-taught, but received some training from the painter Bernhard Hinna from Jæren.

Nikolai Astrup was aware of Tenol-Tuxen's talent and recommended that he receive a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture. Tenol-Tuxen is best known for his landscape motifs with motifs from various places in Sogn. He has a distinctive color scheme that matches well with the western nature.

(1877 - 1944)

He painted pictures from all parts of the world, but is especially known in Norway for his Norland Paintings.
S. went to sea at a very young age and saved money to become an artist. He began his studies in Vienna at the age of 19 and later became one of Norway's most travelled painters. He painted subjects from all over the world, but is especially known in Scandinavia as the Nordland painter with the ability to reproduce the colours of sunsets and the northern lights and the magic of the Nordland nature. In Hamburg in 1904 he exhibited a larger picture, The cruiser Prins Heinrich on its way to Aalesund .

(1848 - 1918)

Eilert Adelsteen Normann (1 May 1848–26 December 1918) was a Norwegian painter. He was educated in Düsseldorf, Germany, and settled there. During the summer he traveled around Northern Norway and made sketches. He specialized in romantic fjord landscapes, often with a small steamboat or sailboat on a mirror-like sea. Normann was the first from Northern Norway to establish himself as a painter.

Normann was the son of a farmer and merchant on Vågøya in Bodin. After working as a journeyman for merchant Koch in Bodø, he traveled to Bergen and later Copenhagen to learn the trade. During his studies in Copenhagen, his interest in art took over. From 1869 to 1873, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf, where he was greatly influenced by the tradition of his compatriot Hans Gude. He thus became a typical late Düsseldorfer. Normann also found a spouse and permanent address in the Rhine city, at a time when other Norwegian painters were seeking Paris.

With his background from Nordland, Normann specialized in Norwegian fjord landscapes. He found motifs especially in Lofoten and Northern Norway, as well as around the Sognefjord. On his study trips in Norway, he made sketches that he used to compose large-format landscape paintings. His fjord motifs are often characterized by steep mountains over sunny fjords and sea. Light played a major role in Normann's paintings; he was one of the first Norwegian painters to use the midnight sun as a motif. He is said to be the originator of the term "land of the midnight sun". His paintings became very popular with the German art public.

No information about the artist.

No information about the artist.

No information about the artist.