Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831–1892)
Detail; Battle of Stamford Bridge, c. 1870
Oil on canvas
Private collection
The Battle of Stamford Bridge took place at the village of Stamford Bridge, in England, on 25 September 1066, between an English army under King Harold Godwinson and an invading Norwegian force led by King Harald Hardrada and the English king's brother Tostig Godwinson. After a bloody battle, both Hardrada and Tostig, along with most of the Norwegians, were killed. Although Harold Godwinson repelled the Norwegian invaders, his army was defeated by the Normans at Hastings less than three weeks later. The battle has traditionally been presented as symbolising the end of the Viking Age. More on The Battle of Stamford Bridge
Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831–1892)
The Battle of Stamford Bridge, c. 1870
Oil on canvas
Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum
The Norse army formed a shieldwall to face the English attack. Harold's army poured across the bridge, forming a line just short of the Norse army, locked shields and charged. The battle went far beyond the bridge itself, and although it raged for hours, the Norse army's decision to leave their armour behind left them at a distinct disadvantage. Eventually, the Norse army began to fragment and fracture, allowing the English troops to force their way in and break up the Scandinavians' shield wall. Completely outflanked, and with Hardrada killed with an arrow to his windpipe and Tostig slain, the Norwegian army disintegrated and was virtually annihilated. More on The Battle of Stamford Bridge
Peter Nicolai Arbo (18 June 1831 – 14 October 1892) was a Norwegian historical painter, who specialized in portraits and allegorical scenes from Norwegian history and the Norse mythology. He is most noted for The Wild Hunt of Odin (See below), a dramatic motif based on the Wild Hunt legend and Valkyrie, which depicts a female figure from Norse mythology.
Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831–1892)
The wild Hunt of Odin, c. 1868
Oil on canvas
Height: 169.0cm; Width: 241.0cm
Drammens Museum
The Wild Hunt is drawn from a general European folk myth, which is specifically including in the Norse canon, of a group of ghostly huntsmen passing in wild pursuit. Seeing the Wild Hunt was the harbinger of major catastrophe, usually a battle with many deaths. The riders could also snatch humans up and abduct them, perhaps to Valhalla, as Arbo shows in this powerful painting. More on The Wild Hunt
Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831–1892)
The wild Hunt of Odin, c. 1872
Oil on canvas
Height: 165.5 cm (65.1 in); Width: 240.5 cm (94.6 in)
National Gallery of Norway
The participants in the hunt were ghosts and the restless souls of the dead. According to Norwegian folklore they were led by Sigurd Fåvnesbane (Sigurd Dragon-slayer), with the troll witch Gyro Ryssetova (Gudrun Horse-tail) as the rear guard.
The Wild Hunt of Odin consists of a terrifying procession that hurl across the sky during midwinter and abduct unfortunate people who have failed to find a hiding place.
The celestial riders swarm forward through the desolate, moonlit landscape, closely followed by the ravens belonging to Odin, the chief god in Norse mythology. Thor, the god of war, thunders ahead with his hammer held high. More on this painting
Peter Nicolai Arbo grew up at Gulskogen Manor in Gulskogen, a borough in Drammen, Norway. He was the son of headmaster Christian Fredrik Arbo (1791–1868) and his wife Marie Christiane von Rosen. His brother Carl Oscar Eugen Arbo was a military medical doctor and a pioneer in Norwegian anthropologic studies. Arbo's childhood home, Gulskogen, was built in 1804 as a summer residence for his older cousin, lumber dealer and industrialist Peter Nicolai Arbo.
Peter Nicolai Arbo
The Night, Nótt riding Hrímfaxi, c. 1887
Width: 182.7 cm, Height: 232 cm
National Gallery of Norway
Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831–1892)
Dagr, c. 1874
Oil on canvas
Private collection
Dagr is the divine personification of the day in Norse mythology. He appears in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both sources, Dagr is stated to be the son of the god Dellingr and is associated with the bright-maned horse Skinfaxi, who "draws day to mankind". Depending on manuscript variation, the Prose Edda adds that Dagr is either Dellingr's son by Nótt, the personified night, or Jörð, the personified Earth. Otherwise, Dagr appears as a common noun simply meaning "day" throughout Old Norse works. More on Dagr
Peter Nicolai Arbo
Valkyrjen/ The Valkyrie, c. 1869
Oil on canvas
Width: 194.5 cm, Height: 243 cm
The National Museum of Art
In Norse mythology, a valkyrie (from Old Norse valkyrja "chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who choose those who may die in battle and those who may live. Selecting among half of those who die in battle, the valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin. There, the deceased warriors become einherjar. When the einherjar are not preparing for the events of Ragnarök, the valkyries bear them mead. Valkyries also appear as lovers of heroes and other mortals, where they are sometimes described as the daughters of royalty, sometimes accompanied by ravens and sometimes connected to swans or horses. More on the Valkyrie
Peter Nicolai Arbo
Valkyrjen/ The Valkyrie, c. 1869
Oil on canvas
Height: 34.5 cm, Width: 29 cm
The National Museum of Art
Arbo started his art education with a year at the Art School operated by Frederik Ferdinand Helsted (1809–1875) in Copenhagen (1851–1852). After this, he studied at the art academy in Düsseldorf. From 1853 to 1855 he studied under of Karl Ferdinand Sohn, professor of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and from 1857 to 1858 under Emil Hünten who was a battle and animal painter. At Düsseldorf he was for some time a private student of the history painter Otto Mengelberg (1817–1890). He had contact with Adolph Tidemand and became a good friend of Hans Gude both of whom were professors at the art academy in Düsseldorf. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.
Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831–1892)
Horses in the Mountains, c. 1889
Oil on canvas
Height: 140 cm (55.1 in); Width: 200 cm (78.7 in)
National Museum of Art, Oslo
In 1861 Arbo returned to Norway and the following year he went on a study trip together with Gude and Frederik Collett. In 1863 he painted the first version of Horses in the Mountains a motif he later on took up again several times. The version from 1889 (See above) is at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (Norwegian: Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design) in Oslo and is considered one of the most important of his works.
Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831–1892)
Hervors død/ Hervor's Death, c. Before 1892
Oil on canvas
I have no further description, at this time
Hervör was a shieldmaiden in the cycle of the magic sword Tyrfing. Greatly outnumbered, she died leading the army against the first assault of the Huns in an inheritance conflict between her brothers. The men in this image may represent her foster-father (Ormar) and brother (Angantýr). More on this painting
From 1863 he lived in Paris until 1870, when he moved back to Norway and settled in Oslo where he was appointed director of the Art School.
Arbo, Peter Nicolai (1831-1892)
Apostelen Johannes/ Apostles John, c. 1866
Oil on canvas
84 x 67 cm. (33.1 x 26.4 in.)
Private collection
Saint John the Apostle, also called Saint John the Evangelist or Saint John the Divine (flourished 1st century ce), in Christian tradition, the author of three letters, the Fourth Gospel, and the Revelation to John in the New Testament. He played a leading role in the early church at Jerusalem.
John was the son of Zebedee, a Galilean fisherman, and Salome. John and his brother James were among the first disciples called by Jesus. In the Gospel According to Mark he is always mentioned after James and was no doubt the younger brother. His mother was among those women who ministered to the circle of disciples. James and John were called by Jesus “Boanerges,” or “sons of thunder,” perhaps because of some character trait such as the zeal exemplified in Mark 9:38 and Luke 9:54, when John and James wanted to call down fire from heaven to punish the Samaritan towns that did not accept Jesus. John and his brother, together with Simon Peter, formed an inner nucleus of intimate disciples. In the Fourth Gospel, ascribed by early tradition to John, the sons of Zebedee are mentioned only once, as being at the shores of the Sea of Tiberias when the risen Lord appeared; whether the “disciple whom Jesus loved” (who is never named) mentioned in this Gospel is to be identified with John (also not named) is not clear from the text. More on Saint John
Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831–1892)
The fall of Olav the Saint in the battle of Stiklestad, c. 1859
Watercolor
Private collection
Olaf II Haraldsson, also called Saint Olaf, Norwegian Hellig-Olav, (born c. 995—died July 29, 1030, Stiklestad, Norway), the first effective king of all Norway and the country’s patron saint, who achieved a 12-year respite from Danish domination and extensively increased the acceptance of Christianity. His religious code of 1024 is considered to represent Norway’s first national legislation. More on Saint Olaf
Painted as a sketch for a print for the book Pictures of Norway's History
Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831–1892)
King Sverre's train over the Vossefjellene/ King Sverre's Escape, c. 1862
Oil on canvas
CODE Art museums and composers' homes
Sverre Sigurdsson was the king of Norway from 1184 to 1202.
Many consider him one of the most important rulers in Norwegian history. He assumed power as the leader of the rebel party known as the Birkebeiner in 1177, during their struggle against King Magnus Erlingsson. After Magnus fell at the Battle of Fimreite in 1184, Sverre ruled as sole king of Norway. Differences with the Church, however, led to his excommunication in 1194. Another civil war began against the church-supported Baglers, which lasted beyond Sverre's death in 1202. More on King Sverre
Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831–1892)
Little Gunvor and the Seaman, c. between 1874 and 1880
Oil on canvas
Drammen Museum
Matthew Arnold’s 143 line lament unfolds as the poem progresses is that Margaret, a human, had married the merman, had lived happily with him for many years beneath the sea, and had borne his children. Margaret’s existence was a happy one in this enchanting world “Where the winds are all asleep;/ Where the spent lights quiver and gleam,/Where the sea-snakes coil and twine,/Where the great whales come sailing by,” and where she shared the merman’s throne in his palace under the sea. Then at Easter the sound of the church bells tolling from the world above awakened her sense of religious duty, as she said, “I must go, for my kinsmen pray/ In the little grey church on the shore today.” She felt it imperative to go: “ ‘Twill be Easter-time in the world—ah me!/ And I lose my poor soul, Merman, here with thee.’ ” The merman granted her wish to go to the village, assuming that she was going only for a brief visit: “I said, ‘Go up, dear heart, through the waves;/ Say thy prayer, and come back to the kind sea-caves!’ ” However, she did not return. The Forsaken Merman, by Matthew Arnold
In 1866 he was appointed Knight of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav and Knight of the Order of Vasa. He held numerous positions, including as a juror in Stockholm in 1866 and Philadelphia in 1876, and was Commissioner of the Viennese art department exhibition in 1873. He was also a member of the National Gallery Company from 1875 and director of the Oslo Kunstforening (Oslo Art Society) from 1882 until his death. More on Peter Nicolai Arbo
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