Oil on canvas
72x94 cm
Signed lower left: Eilif Peterssen
Eilif Peterssen painted salmon fishermen both on Nesøya and in Jæren. What intrigued him was not necessarily the fishing itself, -the excitement or the physical labour with string and boat-but the waiting, this unique inactivity and concentration. The fishermen are an integrated part of the painting, but the still water, calm, and harmony is what is the most significant.
Jonas Lie wrote to Eilif Peterssen 29 December 1890: -"why don't you just paint --- the beauty in the bright sea mirror, such as what you displayed in this exhibition? (E.P. received a gold medal for the first version of "Salmon Fishermen on Nesøyen" in Paris 1889. The painting was, according to E.P., sold to a "rich man in New York".) To lead the brush as the Master where you go to both salmon fishing and elsewhere, is a case for itself."
Exhibited:
Statens utstilling, 1891 (?)
Charlottenburg, 1893, cat.no. 589 (?)
Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo 1936, cat.no. 61
Kunstnerforeningen i Oslo, 1953, cat.no. 38
Kunstnerforbundet, "Fleskum-malerne" 1965, cat.no. 29
Bukowskis, "Sommerutstilling" 18 June - 11 August 1990, cat.no. 42
Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, 24 May - 13 September 2001, cat.no. 51
Estimate
NOK 200,000–300,000