Large exhibition whith more than 100 paintings in the four Nordic capitals in 1985 and 86. The Exhibition was a cooperation between the National Gallery in Oslo, The National Museum in Stockholm, The National Gallery in Copenhagen and The Amos Andersson Museum of Art in Helsinki. The exhibition wanted to emphasize the 1880s in Nordic painting, a time where Paris and France succeded Düsseldorf, Munich and other German cities as the primary locus of Nordic artists abroad. The inspiration from French art results in the breakthrough of the outdoor painting and for Realism as a new movement which replaces the academic styles of the 1860s and 70s. At the same time there is a process in the Nordic countries where the artists - often inspired by the broader social movements at the time - sought to better their own working conditions in oppsition of what was at the time seen as conservative academies and art  associations. The exhibition presents the 1880s as a time of change both for art and for the artists making it, and wanted to shine a light on the importance of the realist movement in the historiography, which had been somewhat neglected in favour of the role of impressionism.


The theme of the exhibition was continued two years later with Dreams of a Summer Night which included works from the 1890s and was on view in the National Gallery in Oslo, The Düsseldorf Art Museum, The Hayward Gallery in London and  le Musée du Petit palais in Paris.

 

Harriet Backer was represented with four paintings, three interiors and one landscape, together with several of her Norwegian friends and contemporaries such as Kitty Kielland, Erik Werenskiold, Christian Krogh and Eilif Peterssen. Other Nordic artists such as Anna Ancher and Peder Severin Krøyer from Denmark, Anders Zorn and Bruno Liljefors from Sweden, Eero Järnfelt and Akseli Gallen-Kallela from Finland were also shown.

Catalogue with introductions in Scandinavian languages and summaries in English, 126 paintings.