Elf Castle

The painter Jóhannes S. Kjarval transformed the nation’s view of nature through his interpretation of lava fields and his approach to landscape painting. He was an exceptionally sensitive artist who acknowledged the existence of what is hidden from the eye and often interpreted spirits and supernatural beings in his works. In the painting Álfaborg (Elf Castle), Kjarval conveys his childhood surroundings in Borgarfjörður Eystri, where he grew up with relatives. He undoubtedly heard many stories about elves amid the magnificent nature of East Iceland.

Here, blue-clad figures can be seen in the red- and brown-toned cliff. They face one another as they stand on ledges in the rock, touching noses. The title suggests that the figures depicted are hidden people rather than human beings. The red color of the rock evokes palaces in distant lands, and in the foreground, at the lower right, stands an angel. Winged angels and mythical creatures appear frequently in Kjarval’s paintings, and at times these beings merge with nature itself.

Although Kjarval painted outdoors in nature, he was never imitating it; instead, he recreated his surroundings and interpreted them in his own personal way. He broke new ground by creating a sense of depth in his works and constructing the image using his own methods. For example, he fragmented the picture plane with a kind of pattern and placed primary emphasis on surface, color variation, and texture. In this way, he presented the landscape in close-up, drawing the viewer closer to nature.