KRISTJÁN H. MAGNÚSSON: a FORGOTTEN LUNDY ARTIST by ANDRÉ COUTANCHE 14 Queens Road, Bishopsworth, Bristol, BS13 8LB E-Mail: [email protected]
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Journal of the Lundy Field Society, 5, 2016 KRISTJÁN H. MAGNÚSSON: A FORGOTTEN LUNDY ARTIST by ANDRÉ COUTANCHE 14 Queens Road, Bishopsworth, Bristol, BS13 8LB e-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT Kristján H. Magnússon (1903-1937) was an Icelandic artist who studied in the U.S.A. and worked in Iceland, the U.S. and the U.K. In spring 1931 he lived and painted on Lundy at the invitation of Martin Coles Harman, the then owner of the island. The circumstances which led to this are described and some historical and artistic context is sketched out. Some of his paintings are illustrated, and the whereabouts of his Lundy pictures are discussed. Keywords: Kristján Magnússon, Lundy, Iceland, art history BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY In 2012 a small working group of Lundy Field Society members was planning a book on Lundy during the Harman era to mark the ninetieth birthday of Diana Pennington Keast, the younger daughter and only surviving child of Martin Coles Harman (MCH), who bought Lundy in 1925. Among the unique archives of papers and photographs which Diana brought to the meetings as possible topics for the book was a folder containing material about Kristján Magnússon. In the event, there was no room for that particular subject in the final book (The Harman Family’s Lundy 1925-1969), but it attracted me as an intriguing topic for further research, especially since Magnússon seemed to be barely heard of in Lundy circles and not documented at all. METHODS AND MATERIALS Diana Keast’s archive consisted of a photograph of Magnússon at his easel (Plate 1); an exchange of typewritten letters dated September 1946 between MCH and Björn Björnsson, an Icelander living in London who was interested in acquiring some of Magnússon’s paintings; and a postcard signed by Magnússon to MCH. Diana also had some anecdotes and memories of Magnússon which had come through her family, though she herself never met the artist (Diana was eight years old when he was on Lundy but their paths never crossed). Diana later lent me her father’s notebooks which documented the paintings which he had bought from Magnússon and their initial whereabouts. Further research has been largely on the internet, and, while much more about the artist himself could be discovered in Iceland (and in Icelandic), enough has been found to put his work on Lundy into context. KRISTJÁN HELGI MAGNÚSSON: A BRIEF CURRICULUM VITAE Born on 6 March 1903 at Ísafjörður in north-west Iceland (see the map on page 111). Went to the U.S. in 1919, aged 16, to live with his brother in Boston. From 1921 to 1926 studied at the Massachusetts School of Art in Boston, Mass., under John Sharman - 109 - Journal of the Lundy Field Society, 5, 2016 (1879-1971). First one-man exhibition at the Copely Gallery in Boston, Mass., in 1927. Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in 1928. Exhibitions in Reykjavík and Ísafjörður in 1930. In 1930 became engaged to and married Klara Helgadóttir, who took the surname Magnússon (see ‘A Note about Icelandic Personal Names’): one son, Magnús Kristjánsson, born 26 April 1934. Exhibition at the Alpine Club, London, in September 1930. Contacted by Martin Coles Harman. Painted on Lundy from March 1931: 32 pictures, mostly oils, some water-colours. Exhibition, including the Lundy paintings, at the Fine Art Society, London, in November 1931. Exhibition in Stockholm in 1932. Exhibitions in Worcester, Mass., and New York in 1933. Returned to live at Ísafjörður and worked in Iceland. Died aged 34 on 22 April 1937 at Ísafjörður, probably of an intestinal blockage, after returning from a painting expedition to Borgarfjörður. Sources: www.geni.com;‘Paintings of Iceland by Kristjan H. Magnusson’; Icelandic newspaper archives Plate 1: Kristján Magnússon at his easel. It is not known where the photo was taken but the view resembles paintings of Mount Hekla done by Magnússon and other Icelandic artists. Courtesy of Diana Keast - 110 - Journal of the Lundy Field Society, 5, 2016 Siglufjörður Lundey Gleiðarhjalla . Ísafjörður Lundey Eiríksjökull Borgarfjörður Þingvellir Hrafnabjörg Lundey Hekla Reykjavík 50 km Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands) 30 miles Figure 1: Map of Iceland showing places referred to in the text ICELAND IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY Iceland was first settled in the ninth century. In 1262-1264, Iceland came under Norwegian rule and passed to ultimate Danish control through the unification of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden and Denmark (the Kalmar Union) in 1397. In the nineteenth century, Iceland was a dependency of the Danish crown, but romantic nationalist ideas which were developing in Europe gave rise to an increasing national consciousness, and an Icelandic independence movement began in the 1850s. In 1874, Denmark granted Iceland a constitution and limited home rule. This was expanded in 1904, with a Minister for Iceland in the Danish cabinet. The Danish-Icelandic Act of Union was signed on 1 December 1918 and recognised Iceland as a sovereign state in a personal union with Denmark. The Government of Iceland established an embassy in Copenhagen and requested Denmark to handle Icelandic foreign policy. Danish embassies around the world consequently displayed two coats of arms and two flags: those of the Kingdom of Denmark and those of the Kingdom of Iceland. Kristján Magnússon was therefore brought up in a society and a culture which was very aware of its unique national identity and keen to project that identity to the outside world. Iceland was a traditional society but not an introverted one. Farming was a corner stone of the economy and the way of life, but people, especially younger people, moved around as workers on other farms before inheriting or buying their own. Fishermen were used to voyaging long distances, but farmers and townspeople were also aware of and interested in news and developments from abroad. - 111 - Journal of the Lundy Field Society, 5, 2016 Deteriorating climatic conditions in the nineteenth century put pressure on farming and encouraged emigration, especially to Canada and the United States. As the final decade of the nineteenth century approached, 27 out of every thousand Icelanders were leaving each year for North America. Shipping connections to the outside world had been few and ad hoc, but a trade in livestock to Scotland from the 1870s brought about more regular links, both to the U.K. and to North America. It was not unusual, therefore, that Magnússon had relatives in the Boston area. What was then unprecedented was that a young Icelander who wanted to study art should do so in the U.S. and not northern Europe. Sources: Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon, 2010, especially chapter 4, ‘The Lure of the New World’; Wikipedia EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY ICELANDIC ART The roll-call of Icelandic artists who were active when Kristján Magnússon was growing up – Þórarinn Þorláksson (1867-1924), Ásgrímur Jónsson (1876-1958), Jóhannes Kjarval (1885-1972), Jón Stefánsson (1881-1962) and others – shows that they all studied in Copenhagen, and perhaps Oslo. It was those who were born after World War I who did their studies in Paris and America rather than Scandinavia. It is not surprising that there was a strong tradition of landscape painting in Icelandic art; both the dramatic topography and nationalistic sentiment encouraged this. Some examples of Icelandic painting at the time Magnússon was growing up are shown below, with the years in which they were painted. (The places depicted are marked on the map). Sources: Sigurður A. Magnússon, 1977; Wikipedia Plate 2 (above left): ‘Þingvellir’ by Þórarinn Þorláksson (1900) Plate 3 (above right): ‘Eiríksjökull’ by Jón Stefánsson (1920) Plate 4 (left): ‘Hekla úr Laugardal’ by Þórarinn Þorláksson (1922) - 112 - Journal of the Lundy Field Society, 5, 2016 A NOTE ABOUT ICELANDIC PERSONAL NAMES Icelandic personal names consist of a given name followed by a ‘surname’ which is a patronymic or, optionally, a matronymic. ‘Surnames’ which descend through a family tree do not exist, except in a few cases for specific reasons. Someone called Kristján Magnússon did not come from a line of Magnússons; he was given the name Kristján and his father’s given name was Magnús; he is ‘Kristján, Magnús’s son’. That father’s full name would have been, for example, Magnús Jónsson if his father’s given name had been Jón. A woman’s ‘surname’ adds ‘-dóttir’ (daughter) to her father’s given name. Both women and men can choose to use a matronymic if preferred; so if Kristján’s mother’s name was Bryndís, he could choose to be called Kristján Bryndísarson, and if he had a sister called Katrín, she could be called either Katrín Magnúsdóttir or Katrín Bryndísardóttir. It follows that there can be no equivalent of the formal addressing of someone as ‘Mister so-and-so’. The formal and informal way of addressing Kristján Magnússon would be ‘Kristján’. If the context was ambiguous (more than one Kristján in the room, for example), he could be identified as Kristján Magnússon. Calling him ‘Magnússon’ in this paper is the British way and would be meaningless in an Icelandic context. It also follows that women do not take their husband’s ‘surname’ on marriage – in the Icelandic context they would be calling themselves the ‘son’ of someone who was not their father. For Klara to adopt the married name of Magnússon in the European or American way was a striking statement of commitment and devotion to her husband – and, perhaps, a way to simplify travelling abroad, where immigration officials unfamiliar with the traditional Icelandic system would expect married couples to have the same name on their papers. Names are regulated in Iceland and have to comply with the grammatical rules of the Icelandic language.