Carl Bertold (1870 - ?) - View Of The Geiranger Fjord - Around 1910

Carl Bertold is a ghost among the arts. His birth in 1870 in Switzerland is mentioned in a commission from Kaiser Wilhelm II for the Cecilienhof Palace. Apart from this prestigious commission, nothing else is known about him other than his painted works of fjords and seascapes.

In his work, the painter depicts a view of the steep mountain range of the Geiranger Fjord in the background, located in southwest Norway. In a unique way, the painter conveys to the viewer the beauty of a sublime mountain landscape at the end of the day. The peaks are dotted with a carpet of eternal snow, although below the valley is filled with greenery, but without flowers. It is summer. The village on the left is inhabited, as the smoke rising from a chimney suggests. The houses are colored red "falun" or ochre yellow "okergul" with a high content of bactericidal metals, but a rustic symbol nonetheless in this remote place. Rarer to find, the blue of the small cabin symbolizes a slight social status, although the idea is romanticized to make the tourist want to visit a polychrome landscape. In the distance, behind the fishing boat, a steamboat is also a sign of interest, since the appearance of these as a means of transport and freight in the area will allow a connection to the world after 1881. It is from this date that painters will be able to go there easily to immortalize these landscapes.

Created around 1910 by this painter of mountains and fjords, the work brilliantly captures the surrounding atmosphere and offers a realistic image of the natural landscape. The impasto is minimal, the application ample and the tones of great finesse. Influenced by Impressionism but also by the Norwegian painter Adelsteen Normann preceding him by a few decades. Indeed, the painting presented here is heavily inspired by an earlier work by Adelsteen Normann called "On the Fjord, Summer." It is characteristic of academic landscape painting in the late Romantic tradition in Germany at the dawn of the 20th century. Bertold may have met Normann in the Berlin or Düsseldorf area and trained in his close circle at the beginning of the 20th century. What is certain is that the inspiration is beyond doubt.

Signed C. Bertold lower left.


Similar works by Adelsteen Normann (1848–1918) on the Geiranger Fjord:

- “On the Fjord, Summer,” https://www.williamsandson.com/artwork-details/807140/18690/a-norwegian-fjord-scene

- “Fjord Geiranger, Norway”: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/geiranger-fjord-norway-150716