Lines and Colors art blog

Eye Candy for Today: Harriet Backer interior

Blue Interior, Harriet Backer
Blue Interior, Harriet Backer

Link is to zoomable version on Google Art Project; downloadable file on Wikipedia, original is in the The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo; the Norwegan online DigitaltMuseum also has a zoomable image.

Norwegan painter Harriet Backer, who was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was noted for her painterly, subtly lit interiors, of which this is a prime example.

Her colors often seem rich and vibrant without actually being bright, and light plays through her compositions in mercurial touches, highlighting some areas and leaving others in deep shadow.

I particularly enjoy the rough scumbled edges of her forms, which adds to the sense of harmony and unity with in the composition.

Blue Interior, Google Art Project

Comments

4 responses to “Eye Candy for Today: Harriet Backer interior”

  1. Awesome!
    For Norwegian speaking readers (I’m not) here’s a link. https://www.geni.com/people/Harriet-Backer/6000000009570781927

  2. Norway knows two languages, Bokmål and Nynorsk.

  3. Thoughtful observations, Charley … thank you.

    There appears to be some cracking here and there … I wonder if it’s through the use of Zinc White?

    1. Thanks. Hard to say; I don’t know much about her palette. It does seem like a lot of cracking for a painting that’s not very old.