By the Oslofjord (Japanese Lantern) 1886

Oda Krohg painted ‘By the Oslofjord (Japanese Lantern)’ with oil on canvas, capturing a woman gazing out over the water. The inclusion of a Japanese lantern points to Japonisme, a craze that swept across Western art in the late 19th century. The lantern could be considered a marker of progressive taste. Mass culture had not yet fully taken hold, and so artists and intellectuals looked to the art of other cultures. They found in the art of Japan aesthetic ideas that were counter to those of the European academy. Krogh was Norwegian and her art was formed in relation to the cultural institutions of the time, such as the art academy and the Parisian Salons. She exhibited widely in Norway and abroad and her work gives us insight into the cultural milieu of the Scandinavian avant-garde. Understanding art like this requires looking at exhibition records, reading contemporary reviews, and taking account of social changes. The role of the art historian is to reconstruct these contexts, enabling a richer understanding of this painting and its place in history.