Gunnlaugur Scheving
Gunnlaugur Scheving was born in Reykjavík and was later sent to live with foster parents in the east of Iceland. After moving to Reykjavík in 1920, Gunnlaugur attended private art lessons with sculptor Einar Jónsson, and at the drawing school of Guðmundur Thorsteinsson, known as Muggur. In 1923 he went to Copenhagen, where he attended a private art school for a year before studying for five years at Det Kongelige Akademi for de Skønne Kunster (Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts). He then returned to Iceland just as the Great Depression was beginning and lived the following years under difficult conditions in various fishing villages, and from 1935 in Reykjavík.
Gunnlaugur´s paintings of fishermen and their lives immediately drew attention, and this would be one of his principal themes. In this huge painting, Hauling the Shark Aboard, the artist conveys a realistic image of Icelandic fishermen and their struggles with the forces of nature. We see only a part of their boat and are given an impression of its rocking on the waves. Powerful diagonals cut across the picture plane, and the painting has great dynamic energy. The fisherman who is the focus of the work is sober and reliable. The color palette evokes the weather and light. Numerous drafts and sketches for this ambitious work are extant and illustrate how the artist explored and developed his subject in the quest for a perfect composition.
In his paintings he sought to depict the unique and close relationship between man and nature in the life and work of Icelandic working people, on sea and on the land. Through simple formal structure and planes of color, Gunnlaugur´s works attain a symbolic significance, extrapolated from the individual to the general and universal. His pictures of rural life serve as symbols of olden days as exemplified in the poetry of the late 19th century, while his paintings of the seaman´s life reflect the changing times, with automation and industrialization of the fisheries sector. The large size of Schevings´s works, and the techniques he applies, have established a unique place for him in Icelandic art history.
The National Gallery of Iceland (thanks to which we present today's work) collection includes over 1800 works bequeathed by Gunnlaugur. These comprise 12 oil paintings and many watercolors and drawings, from sketches to completed works.
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