Sails Drying

Anna Boberg, c. 1904–1907

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Artist: Anna Boberg (Swedish, 1864–1935)
Medium: Oil on canvas laid down on panel
Size: 17 5/8 × 31 1/8 in. (44.8 × 79.1 cm) (sight); 18 1/8 × 31 5/8 in. (46 × 80.3 cm) (canvas)
Museum: Minneapolis Institute of Art
Rights: Public Domain Mark

The Swedish landscape painter Anna Boberg traveled to the Lofoten Islands off the coast of Norway for the first time in 1901. In 1904, her husband built a small house and studio for her above the harbor at Svolvær and she returned there regularly until her death in 1935.

This view of the harbor was exhibited to great acclaim at the 1907 Venice Biennale, and she became internationally known for her paintings of the Arctic, describing herself as both an artist and a “polar researcher.” Boberg's husband wrote about their first journey to Lofoten in his memoirs: "Anna was completely astonished and seduced–she just sank into a silent adoration: here I have been before, here I belong, this I have felt before, this is mine, here I must be, and here I must return."

Text: Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), CC BY 4.0.