BAJANTE :: Christa Zaat

Christa Zaat



Frits Thaulow (Norwegian painter and author) 1847 - 1906
Fra Le Havre, Lavvann (From Le Havre, Low Water), 1878
oil on canvas
100.5 x 67.5 cm. (39.5 x 26.5 in.)
signed, dated and inscribed Frits Thaulow. 78. Paris l.l.
private collection

Catalogue Note Sotheby's
In May 1878 Thaulow sent two works to the Art Association (Kunstforening) in Oslo: the present work and From Le Havre, High Water.
Both works were based on sketches which the artist had done in the summer of 1875. The topografically correct oil sketch for the present work is dated 25 July of that year. In the larger painting (the present work) however, the artist has transformed the Rue St. Jacques into a canal in order to obtain a more dramatic artistic effect.
Le Havre had been founded as a port town in 1517, and the building on the right of this painting dating from 1520 was said to be the oldest remaining building in the town. It was situated in the 'Avant Port' area on the Quai Notre Dame at the corner of Rue St. Jacques. A postcard from about 1900 shows the house in the present oil to have been the 'Café du Vieux Havre', and there are photographs from about 1935 showing the building and the café still in existence. The area was flattened, however, in World War II after the Normandy Invasion in 1944.

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Johan Frederik Thaulow was born in Christiania, the son of the wealthy chemist, Harald Thaulow (1815–1881) and Nicoline ("Nina") Louise Munch (1821–1894). Thaulow was educated at the Academy of Art in Copenhagen in 1870–72, and from 1873–75 he studied with Hans Gude at the Baden School of Art in Karlsruhe.

After a stay in Skagen during the autumn of 1879, Thaulow returned to Norway in 1880. He became one of the leading young figures in the Norwegian art scene, together with Christian Krohg and Erik Werenskiold, and helped established the first National Art Exhibit (also known as Høstutstillingen or Autumn Exhibit) in 1882. Many of Thaulow's best known Norwegian scenes are from Åsgårdstrand, which had become an important center for artists and painters dating from the 1880s. Thaulow moved to France in 1892, living there until his death in 1906. Thaulow soon discovered that the cityscapes of Paris did not suit him. His best paintings were made in small towns such as Montreuil-sur-Mer (1892–94), Dieppe and surrounding villages from (1894–98), Quimperle in Brittany in (1901) and Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne in the Corrèze département (1903). Thaulow received a number of honors for his artistic activity, including his appointment as commander of the 2nd Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1905. He received the French Legion of Honor, Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus from Italy and the Order of Nichan Iftikhar from Tunisia. He died in Volendam, in the Netherlands. The National Gallery of Norway features 37 of his works. Other prominent displays include The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University.