Welcome to the gallery in Astruptunet!
Astruptunet has undergone extensive restoration work over the past three years. The buildings and the garden have been reverted to the way the farm appeared during Engel and Nikolai Astrup’s lifetime.
With the exhibiton ”The Gift of Nature”, we celebrate the completion of this restoration, by taking a closer look at the rich floral life found in Astrup’s work. As part of the restoration, berry bushes, fruit trees and plants originally part of the garden have been re-introduced.
Go back a hundred years in time, when reusing, self-sufficiency and extended families were a natural part of everyday life.
Astrup’s ambitions for the Astruptunet garden are underscored in his notebooks. They show that he acquired more than 2000 plants from the Sandve plant nursery. The artist wanted the family to live off of fruits and vegetables from the garden. He also wanted to try out plants that normally wouldn’t endure the harsh Jølster weather.
In Astrup’s art there are detailed depictions of flowers, crop plants and trees. He found motifs all around him here at the artist’s home, his childhood home at the Ålhus parsonage rectory and throughout Jølster and the surrounding mountains. After the construction and development of the artist's home, Astrup painted several interiors from Kjøkkenstova (the cookhouse) in the early 1920s.
The Astrup family spent several summers in Befringsdalen, where Astrup found many motifs. Many of the works provide insight into contemporary daily life. A shieling was, for example, an integral part of a farm, allowing farmers to utilise mountain resources like hayfields and grazing areas. Shielings were often near streams, as water was important for animals and people alike.
Exhibition over three floors
The gallery at Astruptunet is built and 'hidden' inside the barn on the farmstead. In the main floor, where you also find the museum shop, we display mostly large paintings. Additionally, there are exhibitions in both the basement and the top floor. Altogether, this is the largest collection of Astrup's art we have displayed here in the gallery since 2006.
Thanks!
The exhibition has been made possible by generous art loans from Kode, The Savings Bank Foundation DnB and private collectors. We would also like to thank landscape architect Ingeborg Mellgren Mathiesen from Arkadia landscape for her historical garden mappings of Astruptunet. Her findings have provided new avenues for understanding Astrup’s diverse art.