Valdres Floral Cupboard - JP3167

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Located in the southwestern part of Oppland (Gudbrandsdal is the northern part), Valdres area is a land of inner valley and forest with river and lakes. “Valdres” means the “Valley of the pasture and forest.” Valdres rosemaling was most popular from the 1770’s to the mid 1850’s. Influences can be found from the baroque, rococo and neo-classicism period. Peter Aadnes (1739-1792) was one of the most notable early artists. City trained, his style is heavily influenced by the rococo period. Ola Hermundsson Berge (1768-1825), a prolific painter, really developed a strong rustic style. Combining floral bouquets and monochromatic chinoiserie influenced landscapes of the rococo period. He graced the valley with paintings of roses, tulips, and stylized landscapes, (mostly trees). An American counterpart of his stylized landscapes would be Rufus Porter (1792-1884). Although there were other contributing artists to the Valdres style, it is good to look at Berg’s work first, because his work is most often used as the definition of the style from this valley. Monochromatic landscapes, mostly trees, included bushes, stumps, houses, and ruins. A few small birds, figural elements and occasionally a heraldic animal in combination with floral bouquets are the most common. Floral arrangements were suspended from bows or strings of ribbon, placed in urns, a vase, or, less often, a cornucopia, or grown from long stems combined with long, flowing ‘s’ shaped leaves make up the most important features of this painting. Acanthus based scrolls are found a little later in this area and are probably the influence of painters from other areas, like Telemark.