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Hans Fredrik Gude
Norwegian, 1825 - 1903
Norwegian painter. He was the most renowned Norwegian landscape painter of his time. At the age of 12 he was enrolled as a pupil of Johannes Flintoe (1787–1880). After attending evening classes at the Kongelige Tegneskole in Christiania, he went to Düsseldorf in 1841 to study privately with the landscape painter Andreas Achenbach (1815–1910). In 1842 Gude was admitted to the landscape class at the Akademie under Johann Wilhelm Schirmer. He was later appointed an assistant teacher at Schirmer’s private studio, and he succeeded his master as Professor of landscape painting both at the Düsseldorf Akademie (1854–62) and at the Karlsruhe Akademie (1864–80). In the 1840s Gude established his reputation in Norway and on the Continent with powerful images of the Norwegian mountains. These were shown in the Kunstforening galleries in Düsseldorf and Christiania and at the Berliner Akademische Kunstausstellung, where Gude exhibited throughout his life. Adolph Tidemand and Gude dominated the colony of Norwegian artists who studied in Düsseldorf in the mid-19th century. The two artists worked together on five paintings, all representing people in boats; Gude painted the landscape, Tidemand the figures. The Bridal Procession at Hardanger (1848; Oslo, N.G.) celebrates a ceremony of country life and is the most famous work of Norwegian National Romanticism. In a sunny western Norwegian landscape with snow on the high mountains, the bridal couple and wedding guests in national costume are shown rowing across the water from a medieval stave church on the headland in the background. Gude revealed greater maturity in High Mountain (1857; Oslo, N.G.). The disposition of mountains massed on the high plateau around a little lake produces an effect of monumentality. The predominant colours shade from grey to blue, concentrated in the cloud cover. The influence of Schirmer’s tranquil landscapes is apparent, while the rhythmic arrangement of light and shadow is reminiscent of Achenbach.
In 1861–2 Gude stayed at Betws-y-Coed, Wales, where the mild climate enabled him to work out of doors all year and thereby to develop a greater fidelity to nature. The Efeu Bridge (1863; Oslo, N.G.) exemplifies Gude’s creative innovations during this period, with its rich nuances, intimate charm and misty aerial perspective. After the Royal Academy, London, rejected his submissions to the exhibition of 1863, Gude realized he could not gain entry to the British market, and in 1864 he accepted the chair of landscape painting at Karlsruhe, where he was also Director of the Akademie for several years.
During the 1860s and 1870s Gude was particularly concerned with studying the reflection of light on water. He painted pictures of the Austrian lakes and small boats and sailing ships on the Christiania fjord in a light breeze, with the sun hidden behind light summer clouds (e.g. Approaching Christiania, 1874; Oslo, N.G.). He gradually gained confidence as a figure painter, although his human figures are never more than staffage. In 1880 Gude became Professor of the Akademie in Berlin and Director of the landscape-painting class. In the same year he completed the huge Port of Refuge (Oslo, Norwegian Shipowners’ Association), which depicts a ship sinking in the breakers of a dramatic storm, in colours harmonized with the blue-grey and beige tones of the sea. Gude remained active as a painter until his death. The numbers of his pupils declined towards the end of the 19th century, when his style became increasingly outmoded, but throughout his 50 years of teaching he assisted a long succession of Norwegian and other artists, including Frits Thaulow and August Cappelen. Gude’s son Nils (1859–1908) was also a painter.
Ernst Haverkamp. "Gude, Hans Fredrik." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T035369 (accessed May 8, 2012).
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