"A Timeless Arctic: Anna Boberg, the Lofoten Islands and a Circumpolar Landscape" with Dr. Isabelle Gapp

In 1901, the Swedish painter Anna Boberg (1864–1935) visited the Lofoten Islands off Norway’s northwest coast for the first time—an experience that marked the beginning of three decades of recurring travels to the region. A largely self-taught artist, Boberg achieved significant international acclaim in her lifetime, particularly for her vivid depictions of the Norwegian Arctic. Gouache, watercolour, oil and photographs all captured her experiences of these Arctic visits, with many sketches and paintings created en plein air or from her studio in Svolvær overlooking the harbour’s mountainous coastline. Isabelle Gapp will explore Boberg’s representations of the region’s coastal landscape and fishing industry and considers how her work can be situated within broader Arctic and trans-Atlantic artistic and environmental contexts. Boberg's work, The Blue Roof, is on view in the exhibition Currents: Art Since 1875.

Dr. Gapp is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History and Co-Director of The Centre for the North at the University of Aberdeen. She is a specialist in landscape and environmental art history from around the Circumpolar North and from 1800 to the present day.

Free and open to the public; no registration required. Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Image: Anna Boberg, "The Blue Roof (Det blå taket)" (detail), n.d., Oil on canvas, 35.6 x 50cm. Ben Elwes Fine Art, London.

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