National Art Museum

Natalie has been studying Norwegian artists at school and was anxious to visit the art museum.
The National Museum in Oslo exhibits Norway's most extensive collections of art, architecture and design. Highlights of the collection include major works by Edvard Munch, including The Scream. Other important artists include J.C. Dahl, Adolph Tidemand, Hans Gude, Harriet Backer and Christian Krohg.

Edvard Munch shares his birthday with Natalie. December 12th. We explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety. Not necessarily topics for a young girl, but Natalie was thrilled to see The Scream and other Munch paintings.

Natalie enjoyed a lot of the modern art as well.
And all of a sudden the museum was crowded with Japanese tourists. They all wanted pictures of Natalie, the Norwegian girl. Almost like a celebrity for a day, there, dear.


This is Harald Sohlbergs famous oil painting Winter's Night in Rondane. Gorgeous!


Christian Krohg was one of the leading figures in the transition from romanticism to naturalism, characteristic of Norwegian art in this period. His paintings tell dark and sad stories of social inferior people. The painting The girl who is sick portays a girl who suffers from tuberculosis. Krohg lost his own sister just a few years before he made this painting. The way the little girl stares right at you with those sad eyes, makes the painting grab a hold of you. The fading rose symbolizes life fading for the little girl. It is almost like a photography. Four years later Edvard Munch made a painting with the same title with a totally different interpretation. He portrays the pain and agony one must have felt facing the illness and death. Yes, sad indeed, Natalie.