Kystlandskap 1878

Kitty Lange Kielland made this artwork, Kystlandskap, using oil paints and brushes on canvas. Here, we see paint thickly applied in some areas to give the impression of sand, while other areas are thin and translucent. These material qualities give the painting a great sense of weight, especially when considering the large rock to the mid-ground. Brushstrokes capture the wind moving through the dunes and give a tactile sense of the plants growing there. The artist has manipulated her materials to evoke the look and feel of nature. Looking closely at the painting's surface, consider the labor required to produce this landscape. Though she worked with traditional fine art materials, her approach blurred the line between fine art and craft. This is a highly skilled work of representation, in which we see the artist's hand and technique clearly present. This emphasizes the connection between hand, landscape, and culture.