Nikolai Astrup

The Kode collection includes major works like «Priseld», «Revebjeller», «Marsmorgen» og «Vårnatt i hagen».

Previously, Kode has displayed the Nikolai Astrup collection in a separate exhibition, but in 2021—2022, large parts of the collection has been loaned out and a smaller selection is exhibited at Rasmus Meyer.

The Astrup Centre at Kode

Together with the Savings Bank Foundation DNB, Kode has focused heavily on Astrup’s artistic work over several years. In 2016, The Nikolai Astrup Research Centre for Art and Landscape was established at the museum.

The centre’s core task is the development of a critical catalogue of the artist’s works. In this connection, the research group has carried out a mapping of Astrup’s letters and manuscripts with transcriptions and English translations for digital publishing.

Go to nikolai-astrup.no for an overview.

Astrup in Rasmus Meyer’s collections

Astrup is clearly central to Kode’s collections, with a history reaching back to Astrup’s first separate exhibition in Bergen in 1908, where many of the city’s prominent figures made sure they got hold of a work of his, among others merchant Rasmus Meyer.

Up until 1916, Meyer bought several works from Astrup, with a certain requirement of quality: “Of Astrup’s paintings, I am interested only in that which is absolutely first class.”

After Meyer’s death in 1916, his heirs donated his art collection to Bergen municipality, but to Astrup’s despair, many major works remained in the family’s possession:

Several of these works have found their way to the Savings Bank Foundation DNB’s collection and are now reunited at Kode through the foundation’s deposit.

This also includes the painting that would become the very crown in Rasmus Meyer’s collection, namely “Midsummer fire”, now belonging to the foundation.

This was one of Meyer’s commissioned works, but the sale was never realized when the collector suddenly died in 1916.

In the halls at Rasmus Meyer, Astrup is presented together with his teachers Harriet Backer and Christian Krogh, and other ground-breaking artists of his time like Edvard Munch, Prince Eugen, J. F. Willumsen and Ludvig Karsten–who Astrup studied together with in Paris.

Moreover, the importance of Western Norway as motif for the art is a core in the collection. National romantic J. C. Dahl is central here, with Astrup as a significant link between the romantic ideals and the modernistic art.

Astrup’s mythical garden

The outskirts are a common theme in the early modernistic landscape art. A contribution to this tale is the story of Nikolai Astrup who settled for a small, remote place in Western Norway, far away from the rest of Europe.

Not only did the place Jølster provide an eternally changing series of artistic motifs; Astrup also shaped his own works of art in and with nature. This came to expression especially in the artist’s home at Sandalstarand, Astruptunet, where life and art melt into each other.

The garden was cultivated as an artistic motif, but was also a farm garden with fruit trees, berry bushes and vegetables, producing considerable food resources for the artist’s family.

Astrup’s garden is surrounded by myth. Throughout its history it has carried the image of lush and alluring vegetation, and many have made the journey to Astruptunet to experience the artist’s characteristic home. Today it is stewarded by

Kode has contributed to the research community concerned with the important mapping of Astruptunet’s garden history. This also covers research on Astrup’s approach to protecting and reuse architecture, preserving traditional handicraft and maintaining the tradition of national costumes.

His wife Engel Astrup (1892—1966) participated actively in this work. She was especially known for her textile prints, for instance aprons for the national costume from Sunnfjord, curtains and tablecloths.

Astrup in our time

Astrup’s love and care for nature, the place and his local environment makes him particularly relevant in our time.

His life and art resonate deeply with today’s awareness of reuse, self-support and not least climate issues related to nature conservation and a sustainable way of life.

The artist is exemplary in the way he interacts with nature. A captivating illustration of this is the story of him holding a baby bird carefully in his large workman’s hands and whispering “here beats the heart of nature”.

This emotion is an essence of Astrup’s art.