It’s possible that this is one of the first paintings Konrad Mägi painted in Norway. He arrived here in the summer of 1908, intending to stay for only a few months, but due to a lack of money, he had to stay for two and a half years. He had hardly painted any paintings before, or at least we know nothing about them, even though he was about to turn 30. Here in Norway, he suddenly starts painting, dozens and dozens of works, although he struggles to find canvas and paint due to lack of money. Initially, only small works are possible, but Mägi takes everything he can from the limited resources. The Norwegian landscape fascinates him, but even more so, the opportunity to work with colors. The forms of bushes and trees lose their clear outlines, and colors become independent: it is important to see their blending and transitions, fades and shining.

There are no people in Mägi’s landscapes, most of the time there isn’t even human-built structures, or they are insignificant motifs somewhere in the depth of the paintings. Mägi wants to paint nature, although he spends most of his life living in larger and smaller cities amidst modern civilization. Why? Was it because he grew up in the midst of forests as a child? Or did he sense something in nature that he didn’t elsewhere? Could nature be both familiar and foreign, safe and mystical for him? “Paris has tired me, and I terribly want to go somewhere rural,” he writes before traveling to Norway. Was he simply tired of the metropolis? What was he seeking in nature: refuge or inspiration? “When I traveled here, I was still in pain, but when I saw her nature, I forgot everything for a while. Nature is magnificent here,” Mägi writes shortly after arriving in Norway.

The reproduction of these works without the express written consent of the owner of the works is prohibited.