Richard Moss previews Nikolai Astrup: Painting Norway (1880 – 1928), which will be on view at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London from February 5 – May 15 2016.

Moss writes: "Rather like Stanley Spencer’s, Cookham, it was Astrup’s home at Sandalstrand (now known as ‘Astruptunet’) in the district of Jølster that became his muse and inspiration. A magical place of potential transformation, today the series of artworks he painted there seem to fulfil his stated desire to create a ‘national style’ that was quintessentially Norwegian both in feeling and subject-matter. Astrup was trained in the painterly naturalist tradition by fellow Norwegians Harriet Backer (1845-1932) and Christian Krohg (1852-1925) in Oslo and Paris but it was during study tours in Europe that he identified the importance of the innocent, untutored eye in recording truth in nature."