Nikolai Astrup's Jølster Years: Marriage, Midsummer Bonfires and the Making of Astruptunet
After studying in France and Germany, Nikolai Astrup chose to return to Jølster instead of Kristiania. He wed Engel Marie Sunde on December 23, 1907, when she was just fifteen, which sparked controversy. Their paths crossed when Astrup visited the Sunde farm to paint, leading to the creation of his piece, Raw November Morning at Sunde, which ignited their romance. Concerned about jeopardizing an art grant due to their marriage, they went on to have eight children, beginning with their daughter Kari in 1911. Focusing on Jølster for his landscape themes, they purchased a smallholding at Sandalstrand in 1912, now known as Astruptunet. Engel gained recognition for her fabric prints and served as vice-chairman of Jølster Husflidslag. Astrup passed away from pneumonia on January 21, 1928, while Engel died on December 29, 1966.
Key facts
- Nikolai Astrup married Engel Marie Sunde on December 23, 1907, when she was one month from her sixteenth birthday and he was twenty-seven.
- Astrup painted Kollen (The Fell), originally Raw November Morning at Sunde in Jølster, in late 1906 from a room on the Sunde farm owned by Anders Jensen Sunde.
- The couple had eight children, beginning with daughter Kari in 1911 and eldest son Arnold Böcklin Astrup.
- Astrup's 1909 painting St. Hansbål ved Jølstravatnet (Midsummer Eve Bonfire) depicts spectators by the lake Brenden with bonfires and mountains.
- In 1912 the Astrups bought a dilapidated smallholding at Sandalstrand, now Astruptunet, and moved there in 1913; the thirty-acre property lay three kilometres from Myklebust.
- Astruptunet is today part of Sogn og Fjordane Art Museum.
- Engel Astrup exhibited hand-printed tablecloths at Bergens Kunstforening in 1939 and was elected vice-chairman of Jølster Husflidslag.
- Astrup died of pneumonia on January 21, 1928, aged 47, after catching cold on an open-car journey to Førde; Engel died December 29, 1966, aged 74.
Entities
Artists
- Nikolai Johannes Astrup
- Engel Marie Sunde
- Bernhard Folkestad
- Henrik Lund
- Claudia Massie
- Arnold Böcklin Astrup
- Kari Astrup
Institutions
- Sogn og Fjordane Art Museum
- Bergens Kunstforening
- Jølster Husflidslag
- Jølster municipality
- My Daily Art Display
Locations
- Jølster
- Norway
- Kristiania
- Jølstervatnet
- Kleivafjellet
- Kjøsnesfjord
- Sunde
- Sunde farm
- Ålhus
- Ålhustunet
- Sandalstrand
- Astruptunet
- Myklebust
- Førde
- Arendal
- Brenden
- Bergen
- Sogn og Fjordane
- Paris
- France
- Germany
- Japan