A Carpenter’s Workshop

Narrator: 

This small, but highly detailed painting from 1881 was one of the factors that led to the founding of Norway’s very popular Autumn Exhibition. The reason was that the painting depicted reality. 

Vibeke Waallann Hansen: 

Gustav Wentzel’s A Carpenter's Workshop is really what one might call a typical realistic painting, very representative of the art movement known as Realism, which was very prominent in the Norwegian and Nordic art of the 1880s.  

Narrator: 

You are listening to Vibeke Waallann Hansen, an art historian at the National Museum. 

Vibeke Waallann Hansen: 

And what makes it a part of Realism is first and foremost the subject, that it’s a craftsman, a worker who’s shown in his working environment. And the next thing is that there’s a lot of detail, that’s also very typical.  

Narrator: 

The wood shavings on the floor, the leggings hanging up to dry, the tools hanging on the walls, the wrinkles in the carpenter’s face. For many of us these details are fascinating, as they show what a workshop in Kristiania, now known as Oslo, actually looked like at that time. But in the 1880s, members of the artistic elite in the Norwegian capital found Realism’s focus on everyday life highly provocative.

The wealthy men who controlled the Art Association in Kristiania liked their art to be beautiful – so Wentzel was not allowed to exhibit his painting, triggering protests from his fellow artists.  

Vibeke Waallann Hansen: 

Artists wanted to be included in the jury that selected pictures for exhibitions, but they weren’t allowed to participate. 

Narrator: 

In the end, this situation led to several artists refusing to exhibit their paintings at the Art Association. They went on strike and began to organize their own annual exhibition, which they managed themselves. And so 1882 saw the opening of the first Autumn Exhibition. Today, nearly 150 years later, this important contemporary art exhibition continues to take place in Oslo every autumn.