From Fleskum

Erik Werenskiold was among the most important Norwegian painters of his generation — his illustrations for the Norwegian fairy tales collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe (which became the definitive visual language for Norwegian folk stories) and his portraits of Norwegian cultural figures constituted the central achievement of his career. His 'From Fleskum' (1888) depicts the Fleskum area in Akershus county — a landscape near Oslo that Norwegian painters frequently used as an accessible painting ground. His landscape subjects show the influence of French Naturalism absorbed during his extended Paris period.

Werenskiold renders the Norwegian Fleskum landscape with direct plein air observation informed by his Paris training — the light quality, the specific vegetation, and the spatial character of the Akershus farmland depicted with naturalistic honesty. His handling is confident and direct without the atmospheric dissolution of Impressionism, maintaining the solid, specific quality that characterized Norwegian Naturalism's relationship to the landscape tradition.