JOHANNES SVEINSSON KJARVAL (1885-1972)
The Esja or Esjan (914 m - 2, 999ft)
Iceland.
Painted in 1939
The mountain
Esja (914 m - 2,999 ft) often called "Esjan" or "The Esja" is situated in the south-west of Iceland, about 10 km to the north of Iceland's capital city Reykjavik. Esja is not a single mountain, but a volcanic mountain range, made from basalt and tuff. The etymology of the name is unclear. Esja can be used as a first name in Iceland. In the Kjalnesingasaga, there is a rich widow among Irish settlers named Esja, but it is likely that the women's name is derived from the mountain and not vice versa.
The easternmost summits of the mountain range, called Móskarðshnúkar, are of an unusually light colour. An Icelandic writer in the 19th century, so goes the story, hoped to see the sun there after a long period of rain. But when he looked closer, it was only the mountaintops with their colours. In reality, it is the rhyolite stone, often to be found in Icelandic nature near old (and also active) central volcanoes.
Climbing
Within easy reach of the capital, Esja is a very popular recreation area for hikers and climbers. The best known hiking paths lead to the summits Pverfellshorn (780 m) and Kerhólakambur (851 m). Pverfellshorn is also easily accessible by public transport. The path is divided into sections, marked with signs along the way. Each sign gives an indication of the difficulty of the path ahead with a grade system ranging from 1 boot (easy) to 3 boots (challenging). At the third sign experienced climbers can choose to climb directly to the peak, instead of following the path which goes off to the right. Approximately 6.6 kilometers of walking and 200 meters away from sea level is an point a big rock called Steinn. It is here that most inexperienced climbers choose to go down again, as the path becomes increasingly difficult from there. The highest point, at 914 m, is called Hábunga. From Þverfellshorn, reaching Habunga requires another three-kilometer trek northeast, across a rocky plateau with no directional signs or clear path. As of August 2011, Habunga was marked only by a large cairn with a wooden stick at the top.
Johannes Sveinsson Kjarval was an Icelandic painter. He is considered one of the most important artists of Iceland. Born in poverty, he was adopted and, as a young man, worked as a fisherman. However, he spent every spare time drawing and painting and managed to learn basics from artist Ásgrímur Jónsson. At age 27 with financial support from fishermen and the Icelandic Confederation of Labour he passed an entrance examination and was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts for higher education in the arts where he completed his studies. During the Copenhagen years he became acquainted with various styles including impressionism, expressionism and cubism but he also became an accomplished draughtsman. Later he also took shorter trips to France and Italy.
Kjarval was a prolific painter, leaving thousands of drawings and paintings after a long life. The paintings vary greatly in style and frequently mix different styles into a very personal style. Although not surreal, some of his works include absurd and symbolist elements mixing elves and myths into landscape. Many of his works include Icelandic landscape and lava formation but many of his landscape paintings are partially "cubist" and abstract with his focus on zooming on the closest ground and less the impressive mysterious mountains in the background. Later in his life his art frequently also included abstract painting.
Because of the unique mix of styles, it is an oversimplification to classify him has a landscape painter. His work includes expressionist, abstract, cubist, landscape and portrait paintings and drawings - and his "style promiscuity" was highly original as the man himself was. He was a highly original modernizer of his time and still remains quite unique among Icelandic and world painters. In 1958 he was awarded the Prince Eugen Medal by the King of Sweden.
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2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
