Mount Hekla

To most Icelanders, the Mt. Hekla volcano is a potent symbol of their country. It is some 1,200 meters high, towering over the spacious lowland in the south of Iceland. Mt. Hekla featured in one of Ásgrímur Jónsson´s earliest memories and was also the motif of his first recorded picture, made when he was just a child. Mt. Hekla is often considered something of a milestone in his career. For one thing, it was one of the largest works that he ever produced, exhibiting a new and prophetic maturity in dealing with light.

There are few places in Iceland that have as clear and spectacular a view of the surrounding landscape as the area close to Mt. Hekla, and Jónsson seems to have been determined to capture as much of it as possible on canvas. The painting is partly characterized by an almost topographical exactitude, with every detail noted and incorporated into the whole. Jónsson thus communicates his deep-seated belief in the harmonious relationship between man and nature. At the same time, he emphasizes the very small part that man plays in nature, which is both grand and terrifying. Through his treatment of the ever-changing light, distributing it evenly over inhabited country and highlighting the mountainous highlands, Jónsson raises the mountains to a higher spiritual sphere, thus reiterating an essentially Romantic attitude toward his homeland.

We present today's artwork thanks to the National Gallery of Iceland.  : )

P.S. If you love Northern lands, check this article about the Grand Tour to the North illustrated with many amazing landscapes. <3