Harriet Backer's Northern Light

Near the top of our list of exhibitions we want to go and see: retrospectives of relatively neglected women artists. Also right up there: Nordic painters we would like to learn more about. So it's no surprise we were keen to explore Harriet Backer (1845-1932): The Music of Colours at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Backer was Norway's most renowned female painter of the 19th century, if little known outside her homeland. We must have seen her work in the past in the old National Museum in Oslo, but she'll have been one of many unfamiliar names. Now, though, she's getting the full retrospective treatment with a show that's already been seen in the Norwegian capital and in Stockholm. Backer's paintings are mostly intimate depictions of interiors, both domestic and church. There's a calmness to them, and often a very interesting treatment of light, with Impressionism showing an influence from time she spent in France. One or two of the pictures on show are

Harriet Backer's Northern Light

Backer was Norway's most renowned female painter of the 19th century, if little known outside her homeland. We must have seen her work in the past in the old National Museum in Oslo, but she'll have been one of many unfamiliar names. Now, though, she's getting the full retrospective treatment with a show that's already been seen in the Norwegian capital and in Stockholm.

Backer's paintings are mostly intimate depictions of interiors, both domestic and church. There's a calmness to them, and often a very interesting treatment of light, with Impressionism showing an influence from time she spent in France. One or two of the pictures on show are absolutely stunning, such as this one: Evening, Interior.

It's the first painting you encounter as you enter the exhibition, and it almost overshadows everything you'll see later on. That Japanese paper lamp on the right, with its gorgeous red and orange tones, throws a fascinating light on the young woman sitting at the table intently focused on the letter she's reading and creates a huge shadow on the wall behind.

Also near the start is Blue Interior, painted in Paris in 1883 and depicting her friend and fellow artist Asta Nørregard. Somewhere between Impressionism and realism, it's a beautifully restful picture. Critics described her treatment of colour and light as painting open-air scenes indoors.

And here's another genre scene -- Backer was interested in Dutch Golden Age painting -- with a remarkable chiaroscuro effect. Apparently timeless, but the sewing machine at which the young woman is sitting was a relatively recent invention in 1890.

Backer started her career with a rather precise and detailed method of painting -- she studied in Germany before going to France -- and it was only later that she adopted a somewhat looser style. A picture entitled Music, Interior in Paris from 1887 only really resolves itself in your vision from about 4 metres away, so it's not always easy to get the right feel for these works in the crowded galleries of the Musée d'Orsay. Music, by the way, played a large part in Backer's life, as the exhibition's subtitle suggests. Her sister Agathe was one of Norway's most important composers in her time.

There are a number of paintings showing farmhouse interiors in Brittany and Norway -- not so different, in truth, when you look at them -- but it's her depictions of churches that are perhaps most unusual and eye-catching. These are not at all like the soaring churchscapes of the Dutch 17th century; they're a lot more human. And the best in this show is without doubt the Christening in Tanum Church, in which the woman in the pew on the front right, eager for the arrival of the baby, draws your eye down the off-centre aisle and right out of the porch. While the curious architecture and costumes may be dated, the human touch is timeless; who hasn't looked back down the nave to see the arrival of the bride or get a first glimpse of the child due to be christened?

And what a terrific use of light and perspective.

Very different is this view of the historic stave church at Uvdal, whose plain wooden exterior hides a brightly painted interior, typically Norwegian, though perhaps unexpectedly so for a foreign visitor.

It's a riot of Impressionistic colour. but again not short of human presence.

So, for an antidote to the teeming city life and strenuous boating in the big Gustave Caillebotte: Painting Men exhibition just a few metres away in the Musée d'Orsay, don't forget to look in on Harriet Backer for a hour of Scandinavian calm. It's still crowded, though....

Practicalities

Harriet Backer (1845-1932): The Music of Colours is on at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris until January 12. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 0930 to 1800, with late opening on Thursday until 2145. We spent just over an hour in this show. Full-price tickets to the Orsay's permanent collection and all exhibitions are 16 euros, but it's only 12 euros after 1800 on Thursdays and free on the first Sunday of the month. There's no need to book specifically for Backer, but if you want to get into the Caillebotte show, you'd be well advised to reserve a time slot and a ticket for the museum online here.

The Musée d'Orsay is on the south bank of the River Seine just across from the Tuileries gardens and the Louvre, and it has its own station on line C of the RER suburban-rail network. Solférino station on line 12 of the Metro is also close by.

The Backer exhibition will be returning to Norway next year, at the Kode Art Museum in Bergen from February 20 to August 24.

Images

Harriet Backer (1845-1932), Evening, Interior, 1896, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo. Photo: Nasjonalmuseet/Børre Høstland
Harriet Backer, Blue Interior, 1883, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo. Photo: Nasjonalmuseet/Børre Høstland
Harriet Backer, Woman Sewing by Lamplight, 1890, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo. Photo: Nasjonalmuseet/Børre Høstland
Harriet Backer, Christening in Tanum Church, 1892, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo. Photo: Nasjonalmuseet/Børre Høstland
Harriet Backer, Interior of Uvdal Stave Church, 1909, KODE Bergen Art Museum. Photo: Dag Fosse

Opening and Closing in October

There's been a spate of exhibitions over the past few years aimed at redressing centuries of neglect of the work of women artists, and the Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi is the latest to come into focus, at the National Gallery in London, starting on October 3. Most of the works have never been seen in Britain before, and they cover a lengthy career that features strong female figures in Biblical and classical scenes, as well as self-portraits. Until January 24. Also starting at the National on October 7 is a free exhibition that looks at Sin , as depicted by artists from Diego Velázquez and William Hogarth through to Tracey Emin, blurring the boundaries between the religious and the secular. This one runs until January 3. Tate Britain shows this winter how JMW Turner embraced the rapid industrial and technological advances at the start of the 19th century and recorded them in his work. Turner's Modern World , starting on October 28, will include painting

The Thrill of Pleasure: Bridget Riley

Prepare yourself for some sensory overload. Curves, stripes, zig-zags, wavy lines, dots, in black and white or colour. Look at many of the paintings of Bridget Riley and you're unable to escape the eerie sensation that the picture in front of you is in motion, has its own inner three-dimensional life, is not just inert paint on flat canvas, panel or plaster. It's by no means unusual to see selections of Riley's paintings on display, but a blockbuster exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh brings together 70 years of her pictures in a dazzling extravaganza of abstraction, including a recreation of her only actual 3D work, which you walk into for a perspectival sensurround experience. It's "that thrill of pleasure which sight itself reveals," as Riley once said. It's a really terrific show, and the thrill of pleasure in the Scottish capital was enhanced by the unexpected lack of visitors on the day we went to see it, with huge empty sp

Angelica Kauffman: Breaking Through the 18th-Century Glass Ceiling

In the late 18th century, Angelica Kauffman was famous throughout Europe, one of the leading international painters of the day. A success in London, Venice and Rome, she attracted commissions from Catherine the Great, the Emperor of Austria and the Pope. She was a close friend of Goethe, a founding member of Britain's Royal Academy. When she died in 1807, her lavish funeral in Rome drew enormous crowds. A far from ordinary life, then. And for an 18th-century woman in the male-dominated world of art, an utterly extraordinary one. She achieved equal pay, got women wearing trousers, drew male nudes and even had a pre-nup. It's a story that's arrestingly told in Angelica Kauffman: Artist, Superwoman, Influencer , a fine exhibition now on at the Kunstpalast in Dusseldorf that will be heading to London, and naturally the Royal Academy , this summer. Kauffman was born in Chur in eastern Switzerland in 1741 and was a child prodigy, not just as a painter but also as a singer

The Art Exhibitions Blog

Search This Blog