Lot 172: ADOLPH TIDEMAND

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, MASSACHUSETTS

NORWEGIAN, 1814-1876
BESTEMORS BRUDEKRONE

measurements
46 1/2 by 40 1/2 in.

alternate measurements
118.1 by 102.8 cm

signed A. Tidemand and dated 1867 (lower left)

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Possibly, Schow, New York
Private Collection, Pennsylvania (since circa 1900)
Thence by descent to the present owner

NOTE

The present work is one of a series of paintings by Tidemand, in which a grandmother reveals her brudekrone (bridal crown) to her granddaughter. Decorated with brudabonne (long, colorful ribbons), and noisy, jangling silver ornaments, the crown was an essential element of the Norwegian wedding ritual and was believed to ward off evil spirits. This powerful talisman was passed through generations to ensure a successful marriage. The tender scene is replete with objects that honor familial traditions, as children gather in a room filled with such heirlooms as richly woven wall hangings, precious silver and pewter objects on a high shelf, and a trunk filled with mementos. More then decorative, these items reveal the folk traditions of woodcarving, weaving, embroidery and costume-making of Norway's remote farming communities. In this comfortable room, woven coverlets, crucial in the country's long winters, were also hung as colorful wall hangings, their intricate designs the handiwork of talented farmwives. Like the brudekrone, these textiles followed a woman through her life, used to cover the marriage bed, to wrap a baby at christenings, and drape over coffins. Such materials were stored in linen chests decorated with the rosemaling (rose-painting) of large floral scrolls. Here, Tidemand further embellishes one trunk with the date "1779," suggesting the chest's long legacy, while the other has been opened to reveal a print of King Oscar I and the treasured bunad, woolen red and black traditional clothing, its geometric embroidery specific to the region of this family.

Tidemand's work testifies to his training at the Düsseldorf Academy, which promoted paintings of peasant life and landscape characterized by finely nuanced, first person observation. Though eventually settling in the German city, Tidemand often returned to his homeland. In 1843 the artist undertook an extensive tour of Gudbrandsdalen, Sogn and Hardanger, in part inspired by the Norwegian National Romantic movement led by artists, writers, and ethnographers, who promoted the region's unique scenery, society, and history (Magne Malmanger, "The Flight of Time and the Unique Event: Adolph Tidemand in Search of the Norwegian People", trans. Joan Fuglesang, in Der aander en tindrende sommerluft varmt over hardangerfjords vande, Tidemand & Gude, exh. cat., Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, September - December 2003, pp. 197-98). These travels were so powerfully memorable that Tidemand explained that they led him "irresistibly" in the direction that determined the remainder of his artistic production. Having completed a large number of precise studies in watercolor and oil, Tidemand found supporting material for his paintings completed in the following decades (Malmanger, p. 198).

Many of these sketches informed Bestemors Brudekrone's production. Yet, while the work's numerous details serve as a lasting record of rural Norwegians and their traditions, its appeal extends well beyond ethnographic record. In the soft spilling sunlight illuminating the intimate arrangement of the children eagerly grouped around the smiling grandmother, Tidemand demonstrates his interests in the sentiments of the people as well as their arts and possessions. The foreshortened composition creates an intimate pictorial space, inviting the viewer to closely observe the scene: a portrait of family life easily appreciated beyond Norway's borders. Similar in affect to Jules Breton (see lot 158) and other painters of "peasant life," Tidemand's models memorialize traditions and a way of life that was quickly disappearing. The Norwegian philosopher Marcus Jacob Monrad believed Tidemand's work perfectly illustrated that "the purpose of art is exactly to raise the spirit above the narrow sphere of everyday life, to liberate it, if only for a moment, from the stress and strain of the moment" (Malmagner, p. 194).

It is thus easy to understand how Tidemand became one of the first Norwegian painters to gain worldwide fame in the late nineteenth century. The artist's reputation grew to such a degree that his work was found in numerous collections throughout Europe and, as with Bestemors Brudekrone, as far away as Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was home to Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, whose reputations as powerful magnates of industry were matched only by their support of the arts. The city and the surrounding area boasted a community of renowned collectors that eagerly sought after realist works and anecdotal genre scenes, and particularly favored artists with international reputations. Especially appealing to them was the rich detail and understandable narrative of Tidemand's work, which so carefully combined a fine sense of aesthetic value with a comforting message about the importance of family--a universally appealing sentiment despite the artist's specific vision.