About
Ludvig Karsten is often hailed as one of Norway’s foremost colourist painters. In his pictures, it is colours alone that define both the spatial volumes and the lighting. Karsten contended that it was not the use of multitudinous colours that characterized a good colourist painter: rather, it was a matter of using few colours, the so-called “triple-harmony combinations”, where two main colours – often red and green – were modulated against a third colour. The artist could then employ the entire scale until the colours started to “sing”. Karsten also insisted that art was “a matter of nerve” and that it was the artist’s preliminary touch that was the very essence of art. An artist should create pictures by way of “shivering”, he felt, adding that “I cannot create better pictures by standing around and retouching them”. He was following in Munch’s footsteps here, and Karsten’s pictures often have the air of being battlefields of hasty brushstrokes and turpentine-dripping colour. He wanted to retain his immediate impression of the image, such as it had stuck in his mind’s eye and taken hold of his being, before too much reflection ruined it all.
At the Mirror, painted during a brief visit to Paris in the spring of 1914, is emblematic of how easy – and how difficult – this was. Representations of female nudes and mirrors, which have deep roots in European art history, allow for fascinating depth effects and the charged, erotic atmosphere of the boudoir. Karsten’s pictures were very much in vogue among his contemporaries and it was immediately snapped up by one of his many admirers, the Norwegian shipowner and art collector Tryggve Sagen. The National Gallery purchased the picture from Sagen in 1922.
- Creation date:
- 1914
- Other titles:
- Foran speilet (NOR)
- Object type:
- Painting
- Materials and techniques:
- Olje på lerret
- Material:
- Canvas
- Dimensions:
- Width: 81 cm
- Height: 65 cm
- Depth: 2.1 cm
- Keywords:
- Visual art
- Classification:
- 532 - Bildende kunst
- Inventory no.:
- NG.M.01256
- Cataloguing level:
- Single object
- Acquisition:
- Acquired 1922
- Owner and collection:
- Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, The Fine Art Collections
- Photo:
- Børre Høstland/Lathion, Jacques
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of information gathered since the 1830's. Some records may contain language or ideas that today could be perceived as outdated, offensive or discriminatory with regard to for instance gender, sexuality, ethnicity or disability, and that may be at odds with the museum's values regarding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 Ludvig Karsten
Spring Evening at UlaLudvig Karsten1905
Ansikt; sovende barnLudvig KarstenAntagelig 1893
Stående kvinneaktLudvig KarstenUten år
Stående kvinneaktLudvig Karsten1914
Ryggvendt kvinneaktLudvig KarstenFør 1914
MannsaktLudvig KarstenAntagelig 1893
StabburLudvig KarstenAntagelig 1893
AnsikterLudvig KarstenAntagelig 1893
Del av stolryggLudvig KarstenAntagelig 1893
Stolrygg; to overstrøkne hoderLudvig KarstenAntagelig 1893
TuberculosisLudvig Karsten(1907) Ant.
Spring at SkagenLudvig Karsten1921





























