About
Gloomy, grey clouds hang heavy over the flat terrain of the Jæren landscape, casting a pall on the bog below. The sky’s presence is intensified by the reflection of the clouds in the water and by the white cotton-grass, whose soft, round shapes resemble cloudlets.
In the background we can make out a person with a horse and cart; they seem small, almost insignificant. Around them lie black heaps of peat cut from the bog, silent testimony of both the local population’s toil and the bog’s utility.
Kitty Kielland, born in Stavanger, is most famous for her depictions of Jæren. Her paintings of this flat landscape won her lasting acclaim as one of the most distinguished landscape painters of the late 1880s. Her style is partially rooted in realism’s matterof- fact depiction of visible reality, but it also conveys a wistful, lyrical atmosphere and a symbolism that was typical of the neoromanticism of the 1890s, a movement she helped develop.
Kielland is regarded as the first major female landscape artist in Norway. Contemporary female artists eschewed landscapes in favour of subjects that were deemed more appropriate for women, such as portraits, still lifes, and interiors. Kielland’s atmospheric depictions of the Jæren landscape represented a break from this tradition.
In addition to her noteworthy career as a painter, she was also a vociferous advocate of women’s rights and was a co-founder of the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights.
- Creation date:
- 1882
- Other titles:
- Torvmyr på Jæren (NOR)
- Object type:
- Painting
- Materials and techniques:
- olje på lerret oppklebet på trefiberplate
- Material:
- Trefiberplate, Canvas
- Dimensions:
- Width: 66 cm
- Height: 78 cm
- Keywords:
- Visual art
- Classification:
- 532 - Bildende kunst
- Motif - type:
- Landscape
- Inventory no.:
- NG.M.00521
- Cataloguing level:
- Single object
- Acquisition:
- Kjøpt 1899
- Owner and collection:
- Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, The Fine Art Collections
- Photo:
- Børre Høstland/Lathion, Jacques/Jacques Lathion
Nasjonalmuseet's collection catalogue is a living resource of information gathered since the 1830's. Some records may contain language or ideas that today could be perceived as outdated, offensive or discriminatory with regard to for instance gender, sexuality, ethnicity or disability, and that may be at odds with the museum's values regarding equality and diversity.
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Other works by Kitty Kielland
Study of a Peat Bog on JærenKitty Kielland(ca. 1897)
Landscape, JærenKitty KiellandAntagelig siste halvdel av 1870-årene
Summer NightKitty Kielland1886
Landscape, Cernay-la-villeKitty KiellandAntakelig 1880
Arne Garborg visiting the Artist's Studio in ParisKitty Kielland1887
Peat Bog at JærenKitty Kielland1901
Landscape Study from the Environs of CarlsruheKitty Kielland1873
After Sunset. StudyKitty Kielland(1885)
View over the Sea from Ogna, JærenKitty Kielland1878
Landscape from Ogna at JærenKitty Kielland1878
Study of a Highland RockKitty Kielland1874
Peat Bog on JærenKitty Kielland1900

















































