Thumbnail: poster for the exposition Harriet Backer (1845-1932) – La musique des couleurs at the Orsay museum. Source: https://www.lesvraisvoyageurs.com/2024/12/12/harriet-backer-francisco-de-goya/
Harriett Backer was a Norwegian painter who mostly painted interior scenes and landscapes. My favorite artworks of hers were interior scenes; the way that she portrayed light was what I enjoyed the most. Backer had as a source of inspiration the Realists and the Impressionists, which heavily influenced her way of depicting light, but also her touch and the choice of colors.
Music is at the heart of Backers’s works. She paints the way a composer writes music, using color, rhythm and her paintbrush to create an atmosphere. As a piano player, I particularly enjoyed her way of painting the piano and its surroundings, portraying truly musical scenes.
Harriet Backer, Evening, Interior, 1896, Oil on canvas, Oslo, National museum
Evening, Interior opens this exposition at the Orsay museum. This artwork caught my eye because of its striking colors; the saturated turquoise on the dressing gown pop out all the more thanks to the bright red, orange and yellow of the fan on the right of the artwork. I particularly like the way Backer portrayed the warm light falling on the dressing gown with areas of lime and peach paint. The projection of the girl’s shadow on the wall adds mystery to the scene, making us ask ourselves “what is she reading?”.
Harriet Backer, At Home, 1883, Oil on canvas, Oslo, National museum
This painting shows Norwegian writer Asta Lie playing the piano in Backer’s Parisian apartment. The delicate details of the work are what I find the most intriguing. The way that Backer manages to create the thinnest of transparent curtains amazes me. I love the vibrant green that is used for the plant on the windowsill, bringing a pop of color. The attention to detail on the piano is also impressive, with the gold ornament, the reflection of the dress in the shiny instrument, and the falling of the light on each individual black key.
Asta Nørregaard, In the Studio, Paris, 1883, Oil on canvas, Oslo, National museum
This painting is not by Hariett Backer but by Asta Nørregaard, a female Norwegian painter like Backer. Nørregaard is the first woman artist to receive an order for a religious work. In In the Studio, Paris she represents herself working on the enormous altarpiece for which she was solicited.
The representation of light is, again, what drew me to this artwork. I really like the way the curtain glows in the top right of the work, or the way the paint on the altar-work shines in the light. The framing of the work is also
interesting, making Nørregaard appear tiny against the enormous altar-work. This emphasizes Nørregaard professional prowess, as she’s taking on such a daunting task.
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