Glimmer

*‘From Borgøya’ by Lars Hertervig, National Museum of Art, Oslo*

Norwegian violinist Nils Økland and harmonium player Sigbjørn Apeland, who have collaborated intermittently for many years, recently released the sombre and beautiful album Glimmer, a collection of folk and original tunes, some of them written for a film about the troubled life of Lars Hertervig, the 19th century Norwegian landscape painter, one of whose drawings is reproduced on the record’s cover.

Hertervig, little known outside Norway, was born in 1830 in Tysvær in Rogaland County, to a Quaker farming family of modest means. His talent was discovered when he was young; in Stavanger he took art lessons, later attending the drawing school in Kristiania, and he became determined to be a successful painter. Everything seemed to be unfolding happily when he went to study in Düsseldorf, where he was taught by Hans Gude, but suddenly he was struck by mental illness, and before long he was impelled to return to Norway, where he was admitted to Gaustad Psychiatric Hospital. After some time he was discharged as ‘incurable’, whereupon he moved home to Stavanger and then to Tysvær. In his later years Hertervig could not afford to paint with oil on canvas, so he worked with watercolour and gouache on paper and newsprint, sometimes reinforcing them by glueing fragments and sheets together with flour paste that he had prepared himself. Making a little money by chopping wood, doing practical jobs, and decorating furniture, Hertervig lived alone all his life and died in 1902, in a poorhouse. His art, both soothing and disturbed, fuses emotion with careful attention to the landscape, his personal and artistic isolation doubtless contributing to its visionary intensity.

Hertervig’s sad life inspired the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse’s long novel, Melancholy I, which is divided into three parts. The first takes place on a single day in Hertervig’s life, during which he worries endlessly about his talent as an artist and his love for Helene, the young daughter of his landlady. Although he means to meet his teacher for an appraisal of his work, Hertervig remains in bed, tormented by fear and doubt. What will the teacher say to him? Will he like or hate his paintings? Does Helene love him or not? The unhappy thoughts are never-ending. Hertervig eventually rises and leaves, deciding to go to Malkasten in Düsseldorf, a frequent haunt of artists, but there he finds himself cruelly teased by his fellow painters. In the second part of the book, Hertervig is in Norway on Christmas Eve, three years later; he is still unwell and obsessed with Helene, but now in a mental hospital. He wants to paint but is not permitted to do so. The final section, set in 1991, concerns the Norwegian writer Vidme, who declares that he was overwhelmed when he first encountered one of Hertervig’s paintings, From Borgøya, in Oslo’s National Museum. Vidme, who may or may not be a real person, or perhaps a proxy for the author, blethers incessantly about this experience and seems to be no more mentally stable than the artist. Melancholy II is a sequel, seen from the perspective of Hertervig’s fictional sister, Oline.

Werner Herzog’s 1976 film, Heart of Glass, perhaps best known for the director’s decision to have the actors hypnotised during their performances, can be as difficult to watch as Melancholy is to read. Inspired by a chapter in The Hour of Death, a novel by Herbert Achternbusch, the film is in large part the story of Hias, a late 18th century herdsman-prophet who lives in a remote mountainous region of lower Bavaria and is possessed by apocalyptic visions. Drawing on Bavarian folklore, and particularly the predictions of the real prophet Mühlhiasl, whose writings are the source of much of Hias’ dialogue, the narrative considers the catastrophic effect on the local community of the death of Mühlbeck, the foreman in a factory famous for making rare and expensive ruby glass. Mühlbeck, who didn’t pass on his secrets before he died, was the only person who knew how to make the glass, and all attempts to reproduce it prove fruitless. The owner of the factory soon loses his mind, the glass-blowers work listlessly without direction, the villagers become bewildered, and Hias continues to warn of impending doom and catastrophe. The film’s final scenes, absurd and touching, show seafarers on a small boat, heading towards the horizon in a quest to discover the abyss at the edge of the world.

‘Heart of Glass’, an apocalyptic fantasy in which nothing substantial ever happens, is about delusions, visions, and how people who are caught up in them are often unaware of the nature and consequences of their beliefs. This kind of madness was suffered by the innocent and unfortunate Lars Hertervig, who, it has been said, was convinced that his troubles had been caused by intense observation of landscapes in sunshine.

For further exploration:

Nils Økland and Sigbjørn Apeland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7zZdE3UVjU

Lars Hertervig: https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/stories/explore-the-collection/lars-hertervigs-luminous-landscapes/

Reviews of Melancholy by Jon Fosse: https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/norge/fossej.htm

Heart of Glass (full film): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC0_FCgLSO8

Image on index page: The Tarn, National Museum of Art, Norway

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Shadow