Fjøsfrieri
1904
Expressionism
Oil on Canvas
The Savings Bank Foundation / KODE
“Fjøsfrieri” (In a Cowshed Courting) gives a deep focus down the corridor of a barn housing several cows. A young couple in a romantic embrace is shown in the left-hand foreground. The man is dressed in black with a liquor bottle (possibly Dutch courage) poking out of his pocket and his arms wrapped around the woman who is barefoot. Her right arm hangs down by her side but her left is draped around her suitor’s shoulders and there is a deep blush on her cheek. In the upper centre right the couple are being spied on by a male figure in the hayloft. Astrup combines romantic love with the codes of Romanticism. Passion is obvious to the viewer while a glimpse of the outside world through the barn window suggests a springtime landscape. Perhaps a foreshadowing of Astrup’s two years later when he falls in love with a farm girl.
Nikolai Astrup
Expressionism
Born: 30 August 1880, Bremanger, Norway
Nationality: Norwegian
Died: 21 January 1928, Førde, Norway
Astrup was a modernist painter with a distinctive and innovative style noted for its intense use of colour depicting the landscapes of Vestlandet and the traditional way of life in the region
Jezzie G 