Jens Ferdinand Willumsen (1863–1958)
Tyin Sø. Study for Jotunheim, 1892
Watercolor on paper

In the summer of 1892, J.F. Willumsen embarked on his first trip to Norway. He wished to paint the distinctive Norwegian landscapes, which were so very different from their more cultivated, agricultural Danish counterparts. Willumsen initially stayed in Kristiania (the present-day Oslo). He went on to Trondheim and Lofoten. From here, his journey continued to the large mountainous area of Jotunheimen, where he stayed for approximately three weeks, at a nearby hotel by the Lake Tyin.

Willumsen was captivated by the landscape: ‘I immediately did a quantity of studies, both drawings in black and white and watercolours of these characteristic shapes in the landscape with their splashes of snow spots, and of the kaleidoscopic mirror images in the lakes, which were at different levels.’¹ The locations depicted in several of these studies can be easily identified today because Willumsen was true to the landscape and its outlines.

In this watercolour, Willumsen worked with a largely symmetrical composition. In the middle are the mountains with its snow-capped peaks, while the deep and expansive waters of Lake Tyin spread out below. Willumsen undoubtedly wished to capture the impressive volume of the mighty lake. Perhaps that is why the perspective comes across as somewhat strange. At the top left, he made a note of his vantage point while painting the subject, i.e. Lake Tyin seen from the beach opposite Uranostind near Framnæs.

Several of the studies from his trip to Norway would later form the basis for Willumsen’s painting Jotunheim,² now regarded as a masterpiece in Danish art.