GIRLS ON OVERTURNED SLEDGE, HOLMENCOLLEN
"What is it?" I asked, with tactless ignorance, after examining it long and patiently from as many different points as I could discover in the small room.
"What is it?" said Nico, with artistic licence, not moving from the spot where he had taken up his stand.
"What does it matter what it is?" the owner answered, turning on us with flashing eyes. "Don't you recognise the wonder of it? I myself had it for three weeks, loving it and admiring it, and asking myself how to hang it. The artist himself told me it must hang as you see it, and explained to me that it was a picture of a woman standing in the moonlight."
"But where does she stand?" said Nico. "And where is the moon?"
"At her feet," said the worshipper. "My friend is such a great artist that he reverses the natural order of things, subjugating everything to his art."
Surely all this is rather extravagant, and surely it is not this art that will live when the painter is no longer at hand to explain and to decide "which way up." It is a great pity that all these clever people—for the painter has immense talent, as is shown in his earlier work, and our two interested friends were evidently people of intellect—should be so extraordinarily perverted in their tastes. Norwegian art is comparatively young; but it has made great strides. It has produced Fritz Thaulow, who, though not recognised by the enthusiasts of the class I have described, can boast the admiration of all Europe; among many clever designers, the decorative Munthe; that rather morbid youth, Edward Munch, whose lithographs give evidence of the great things of which he is capable; and many other artists whose names, known and praised in their own country, are not of such widespread celebrity in this.
OLD CANAL, CHRISTIANIA.