Portrait of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson 1900

Erik Werenskiold made this portrait of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson with oil on canvas, a traditional pairing in the world of fine art. The smooth canvas provides a receptive surface for Werenskiold's brushstrokes, allowing for blending and layering to create a photorealistic likeness of the sitter. But in those very choices, we find a class dimension. The rise of the readymade canvas, and industrially produced oil paint in tubes, meant that artists no longer had to grind their own pigments and prepare supports. Yet this ease of production came at a social cost. One need only think of the labor involved in flax cultivation, or mining for the metallic elements that give artists their color. The inherent qualities of these humble materials, transformed through industry, underpin the aesthetic experience of this painting. This invites us to reflect on the relationship between artistic expression, material culture, labor, and the wider social context.