Vernacular Images Of The Svalbard Archipelago, 1596 To 1996 Item Type Thesis Authors Deehr, Tone Benedicte Treider Download date 09/10/2021 16:05:25 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8532 INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter free, while others may be from any type o f computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely afreet reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. 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VERNACULAR IMAGES OF THE SVALBARD ARCHIPELAGO FROM 1596 TO 1996 By Tone Benedicte Deehr RECOMMENDED: APPROVED: / \ o. /-LZd/ Dean, College of Arts and Letters. y 1 of theUraduate School V—7-?7 Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1383812 Copyright 1997 by Deehr, Tone Benedicte Treider All rights reserved. UMI Microform 1383812 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. VERNACULAR IMAGES OF THE SVALBARD ARCHIPELAGO 1596 TO 1996 A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS by Tone Benedicte Treider Deehr, B.A., B.F.A. Fairbanks, Alaska May 1997 1997 Tone Benedicte Deehr Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 ABSTRACT Drama has always been part of Svalbard’s vernacular or everyday images. Drama was central to the serialized whaling prints produced in the Dutch and English printing shops by the seventeenth and eighteenth century’s graphic artists, who themselves might not have set foot in the Arctic. These prints soon gained increasing popularity in illiterate Europe. Svalbard’s resources, adventure, and exploitation became public knowledge. New names began filling empty spaces on the map prompted by science and exploration. The navigator’s and cartographer’s coastal sketches were slowly replaced by more elaborate landscape compositions with halftones and perspective. During the nineteenth century, professional artists gained access to the islands, most often hired to record expedition findings. Having proceeded from the particular to the universal, Svalbard’s vernacular imagery appears as an emotional awakening to the power of being in an arctic environment that renders an important perspective to our global concerns. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 3 Table of Contents 4 Acknowledgements 6 Preface 7 Vemacular Images from Svalbard 7 Introduction 11 The Archipelago of Svalbard: An Historical Overview 1 1 Part I—The Arctic Atmosphere: First Encounters 19 Introduction 19 Voluntary Over-wintering and Summer Expeditions 21 Early Images, Narrative and Descriptive 21 The Emerging Emphasis on the Sublime in The Arctic Landscape; 23 La Recherche Project 23 Narrative, Large Scale Paintings 26 The International Multifaceted Approach in Svalbard’s Documentation 28 Leadership and Commission Spell Success 30 Involuntary Over-Wintering 31 An Idealistic or Realistic Reward 34 The Arctic Night 35 Aurora 38 The Mirage and the Albedo Effect 42 The Return of the Sun, Equinox, Solstice, Sun Dogs, and the Departure of the Sun 43 Summary 48 Part II—Whaling 50 Introduction 50 The Arctic Hunt 52 The Ice, the Sea, and the Arctic Captain 64 The Bowhead Vanishes 67 The Whale Paradigms 69 Summary 73 Part III Svalbard’s Ice, Sea, Land & Fauna 74 Ice Formations 74 The Land and Its Formation 77 Unique Svalbard Mountains 81 Glacial Horns and U-Shapcd Valleys 83 The Shore: Ice Meets Land 83 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 The Shore: Sea Meets Land 8 4 . The Audio-Visual Interpretation of Space 85 The Light and Its Effects: the Sublime, the Emotional Response, the Involvement with Nature 8 6 The Russian Trappers 8 6 The Pomors’ Work Cycle 90 Norwegian Trapping 9 3 Walrus 98 The Sealing Industry 104 The Polar Bear 1 16 The Reindeer 123 The Imported Musk Oxen and Hare 125 Birds 125 The Arctic Fox 128 Part IV—Conclusion 131 Summary 131 Svalbard Iconography and Its Interpretations 134 BIBLIOGRAPHY 139 Appendices 152 Appendix One — Figures Introduction. 152 Appendix Two — Figures Part I 153 Appendix Three - Figures Part II 154 Appendix Four — Figures Part HI 155 Appendix Five — Figures Part IV 156 Appendix Six — Historical Overview 157 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis has evolved over time and has come about with the help of a multitude of contributions and resources. I am particularly grateful to the courtesy of the artists who have volunteered their work to this project; Omar Andreen, Harriet Backer, Bj0rg Brekke, Gro Finne, Ive Hagen, Trine Lotte Krogseth, Ellen Linde-Nielsen, Ilse Storrud, and Hanne Svennevig. I thank my advisor Professor Kesler E Woodward for his inspiring and resourceful approach during a long and tedious process of assembling these ideas. Furthermore, the energy, persistence and clairvoyance of Professor Claus M. Naske were all crucial in bringing this project together. I would especially thank my husband, Charles S. Deehr, whose support made this adventure possible. This thesis, a journey through time, is dedicated to the memory o f my father Peter Treider, who loved Toynbee and gave me my first volume of world art history. Tone Benedicte Deehr Fairbanks, April 4th 1997 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 PREFACE Vernacular Images from Svalbard Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor. A.J. Toynbee. “Do we need to know absolutely everything?” writes one of the contemporary artists who in her love for Svalbard has returned at every opportunity to link her artistic talents with the fascinating light and the topographical peculiarities characteristic of these islands. The quest for knowledge led the first explorers north in search for a northwest passage that eventually could expand the European trade possibilities with the Far East. Svalbard riches, a magnificent and thriving population of whales was discovered, in the process, by the Dutch Commander Willem Barents. A boom period based on an international whaling industry followed that lasted for nearly two hundred and fifty years. The exploitation of the Svalbard waters targeted three short summer months. Suddenly this arctic world of treacherous ice, unpredictable winds and an unmatched serene beauty was invaded by hundreds of sailing ships with their international crew o f sailors who by the thousands had been recruited o ff the modest farms or darker European streets during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In this confusing multitude of languages and prevailing customs, these invaders had some interests in common, such as survival, profit, and a Christian ethic. The degree of the integration of these common denominators, often made the difference between life and death. It could be a stranded crew of forlorn sailors in the icepack depending on a passing vessel for their rescue, or an Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8 instance where a telescope broken in the fall from the crows-nest was to be replaced by the mere kindness of another ship's captain. The international trend in the exploitation of the islands was also mirrored in other smaller economic booms. The Russian fur trapping was an important livelihood over a period of hundred and fifty years before it came to a halt in 1850, when the Norwegian hunters and trappers took over. A growing mining industry that took hold at the turn of the century was initiated and maintained for a decade by US interests. The interplay of this cosmopolitan groups