Dying Primeval Forest
- Artist: August Cappelen
- Creation date: 1852
About
Eastern Norway began to feature in Norwegian landscape painting with the advent of the Düsseldorf painters. August Cappelen, a member of this group, often found inspiration from his local haunts near Holden in Telemark. The deep sense of melancholy found in many of his paintings culminates in this painting, which he left unfinished upon his death in 1852 at the tender age of 25.
It is not broad panoramas but rather intimate portraits of closed-off, secluded areas that typify Cappelen’s landscapes. Precise details must nevertheless yield here to broad strokes of the brush, and Cappelen’s lyrical, dramatic sense of nature infuses the fantastic, halfway symbolic scenery with a touch of the chillingly macabre; in so doing, he managed to depict the mysteries of nature better than most. On his deathbed Cappelen supposedly fantasized about the primeval forests of South America, and in Decaying Forest, his own, unfinished picture of ancient woodland, a mountain breaks up into clefts while rotting, scarred trunks and stumps extend from the foreground toward the background, resembling a battlefield. The composition culminates in the silhouette of the large pine tree against the yellow afternoon sky.
Decaying Forest epitomizes Cappelen’s atmospheric, innovative colouring and his ability to arrange landscape elements within a firm, steady composition. Cappelen was close to his teacher Hans Gude, but he was also heavily influenced by the classical landscapes of Johann Wilhelm Schirmer (1807–1863), a professor at the Düsseldorf Academy.
- Creation date:
- 1852
- Other titles:
- Utdøende urskog (NOR)
- Object type:
- Painting
- Materials and techniques:
- Olje på lerret
- Material:
- Canvas
- Dimensions:
- Width: 163.4 cm
- Height: 131 cm
- Depth: 3.5 cm
- Keywords:
- Visual art
- Classification:
- 532 - Bildende kunst
- Motif - type:
- Landscape
- Inventory no.:
- NG.M.00200
- Cataloguing level:
- Single object
- Acquisition:
- Gave fra Diderik Cappelen 1852
- Owner and collection:
- Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, The Fine Art Collections
- Photo:
- Lathion, Jacques
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Carried out on the basis of
Other works by August Cappelen
Lake in FogAugust CappelenUten år
Landscape Study with decaying TreesAugust CappelenAntagelig 1851
Wood near UlefossAugust Cappelen(1848)
Peasant Woman from TelemarkAugust CappelenUten år
Woman Carrying a Jar and a BasketAugust CappelenUten år
Forest StudyAugust CappelenUten år
Farm BoyAugust CappelenUten år
Knotty Pine Tree in a GorgeAugust CappelenUten år
From Prestehavn by HoldenAugust Cappelen1848
Mountain with Pine TreesAugust CappelenUten år
JuniperAugust CappelenAntagelig 4. mai 1849
Woman Carrying a Rake and a BasketAugust CappelenUten år









































