Interior

Painted in 1883 and now in the Lillehammer Art Museum, this interior work by Kitty Kielland demonstrates her engagement with domestic interior subjects during the same years that her close friend Harriet Backer was developing her signature lamplight interior approach in Paris. Kielland and Backer were in close contact throughout the early 1880s despite being in different locations — letters and visits maintained their artistic dialogue — and this interior canvas reflects the shared interest in light-filled domestic space that united both painters. Kielland's interior work is less central to her reputation than her Jæren landscapes, but canvases like this reveal a sophisticated command of interior light that goes beyond occasional exercise. The Lillehammer Art Museum, which holds an important collection of Norwegian nineteenth-century painting, acquired this work as part of its representation of the major women artists of the period.

Kielland's interior treatment shows a different emphasis from Backer's: where Backer concentrated on lamplight and evening atmospheres, Kielland's interiors tend toward cooler natural window light and a less dramatically contrasted tonal range.