LARS HERTERVIG (1830-1902)

Hertervig studied painting at the Arts Academy of Düsseldorf from 1852, until he developed schizophrenia two years later, and moved back to the Stavanger area. His last 30 years he struggled with the economy, and finally ended up at the poorhouse. He could not afford to paint with oil on canvas, and several works from this period are watercolors and gouache on paper not meant for painting, sometimes using bits of papers glued together with homemade rye flour paste.

Skogtjern (Forest Lake). Oil on canvas, 1865.

His breakthrough came at the Jubilee Exhibition in Kristiania (now Oslo) in 1914, twelve years after his death.

Jon Fosse created an homage to Hertervig with his 1995 novel Melancholia I, and also wrote the libretto for Georg Friedrich Haas´s opera adaptation Melancholia which premiered at the Opera Garnier in Paris on 9 June, 2008 on stage by Stanislas Nordey (Lawrence Olivier Award 2008 for a new opera) and costumes of Raoul Fernandez.