Jens Erik Carl Rasmussen - Midnatsstemning ved den grønlandske kyst - 1872

 

Carl Rasmussen's picture shows a kayak and an umiak (skin boat) among drifting ice in a fjord. It was painted after a trip to Nuuk and Maniitsoq in Greenland in 1870-71. Rasmussen underwent his journey in 1870-71. After 1871 he became known as one of the first 'Greenland painters'. This was the name given to a group of Danish artists who painted romanticizing, idyllic pictures of Greenland's exotic nature and of the Inuit. Rasmussen was also inspired by the Danish genre tradition, in particular of folk life, which often depicted the everyday lives of a rural farm's peasant population. Here, the subject has simply been transferred from Denmark to Greenland.

The painting was acquired by the Royal Picture Gallery (the later SMK) in 1872, being the first painting in the collection to depict Greenland. The painting was purchased by the director Wilhelm Marstrand, who called the picture 'armful and characteristic'. Later, the painting was lent out for events such as the World Exhibition in Paris in 1878 and the Paris Colonial Exposition in 1931. The 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition was intended to promote Danish colonial aspirations for a Danish colony. In 1933, all of Greenland was declared a special case for the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Source: Midnatsstemning ved den grønlandske kyst im Statens Museum for Kunst