Harald Sohlberg discovered the motif for ”Winter Night in the Mountains” during an Easter skiing trip. He created many sketches and different versions of the motif before this famous painting was completed.
Sohlberg made his first sketch for the painting on the train home from the skiing trip in 1899. The final version was not completed until 1914.
This would emerge as the most important motif of Sohlberg’s career. After his first trip, he returned to the mountains in Rondane several times to be near the source of his inspiration. He also took photographs that he used as study material. Sohlberg worked on depicting the mountains in Rondane for 15 years, resulting in several paintings, a number of drawings and a popular print.
A snow-covered palace
In most of the versions Sohlberg produced of Rondane, the mountains resemble a snow-covered palace, and there is no sign of human activity. A few exceptions are versions with a cabin and some skiers. In the final, and largest, version the snow-covered mountains tower in a nocturnal landscape. Stars can be glimpsed in the murky sky, and in the foreground the bushes and trees display their dark, naked winter silhouettes. Almost like a stage curtain, they are gathered on each side of the picture, drawing us into the cold, blue realm of winter. Sohlberg was intent on ensuring that the foreground was not too dense and overcrowded: “It must not give a desolate and wild effect. Because this is where the night and anxiety of the picture should reside.”
This painting is Harald Sohlberg’s most significant work, and although it was executed rather late in relation to the golden age of symbolism, it perhaps represents the pinnacle of symbolist landscapes in Norway. It was first shown at the 1914 Jubilee Exhibition commemorating the centennial of the Norwegian Constitution. The following year it was purchased by J.B. Stang, who donated it to the National Gallery in 1918.
In 1995 the painting was chosen as “Norway’s national painting” in a public vote sponsored by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. In 2005 the Sohlbergplassen lookout point, on the Atnsjøen lake, was incorporated as a stop along one of Norway’s National Tourist Routes.
