Einar Jónsson
Encyclopedia
Einar Jónsson was an Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, born in Galtafell, a farm in southern Iceland.
Biography
At a young age Einar proved himself to be an unusual child with an artistic bent. At that time there was little or no tradition of sculpture in IcelandIceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, so Einar moved to Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
where he attended the Copenhagen Academy of Art. In 1902 the Althing
Althing
The Alþingi, anglicised variously as Althing or Althingi, is the national parliament of Iceland. The Althingi is the oldest parliamentary institution in the world still extant...
, the Icelandic parliament, awarded Einar a grant to study in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
for 2 years. He returned from Rome to Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
and settled down there. In 1909, after living abroad for almost 20 years he made an arrangement with the Althing to provide him with a home and studio in Reykjavík
Reykjavík
Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...
. In return, he agreed to donate all his works to the country. Einar designed this combination living and working space in collaboration with Architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Einar Erlendsson, though early plans for the house were designed for him by Iceland's State Architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, Guðjón Samúelsson
Guðjón Samúelsson
Guðjón Samúelsson was a State Architect of Iceland.Notable designs include main building of the University of Iceland, the National Theatre of Iceland, the Landakot Roman Catholic Cathedral in Reykjavík and the Church of Akureyri; however his final and most recognized work is the Hallgrímskirkja...
, but these were never realised.
In 1914 Einar was awarded a commission to create a statue of Icelandic explorer Þorfinnur Karlsefni
Thorfinn Karlsefni
Thorfinn Karlsefni was an Icelandic explorer who circa 1010 AD led an attempt to settle Vínland with three ships and 160 settlers. Among the settlers was Freydís Eiríksdóttir, according to Grœnlendinga saga and Eiríks saga rauða, sister or half-sister of Leif Eriksson...
for placement in Philadelphia. In 1917, the day after he married Anne Marie Jørgensen, he and his bride travelled to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to complete the work, and today Einar's intrepid Norseman stands on East River Drive in Philadelphia. Several years later, in 1921, his second major North American work was erected when the Icelandic community in Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
purchased a casting of his Jón Sigurðsson
Jón Sigurðsson
Jón Sigurðsson was the leader of the 19th century Icelandic independence movement.Born at Hrafnseyri, near Arnarfjörður in the Westfjords area of Iceland, he was the son of a pastor, Sigurður Jónsson. He moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1833 to study grammar and history at the university there...
statue and had it placed in the Manitoba Legislative Building grounds in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
. As with the version in Reykjavík, this statue included the bas relief The Pioneers on the base.
After two years in America, Einar returned to Iceland where he produced an amazing body of work, none of it seen outside the country. Unlike most other sculptors, Einar worked almost entirely in plaster. This had to do partly with the lack of good modeling clay in Iceland, but it allowed Einar to work on his individual sculptures for years. Spending over a decade on a particular piece was not uncommon for him.
Style of sculpture
Einar's works fall into three general categories. First, there were the public monuments that he was commissioned by the government to produce. The second group was private commissions that he obtained, consisting of portraits and cemetery monuments. The third collection consisted of the private works that he labored over as he became increasingly and deeply spiritually attuned and reclusive. In this large body of works Einar's spiritual nature is clearly seen, though it is often difficult to describe. The themes for these works are frequently drawn from Christ's consciousness, deep Cosmic spirituality like the eternal, infinite body and consciousness of the universe or God, Icelandic Mythology (Understanding of the so called Norse mythologyNorse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
or North-East, North-West and even Central-European War-Godhs mythology is just a part of Icelandic Mythology and understanding or description of these is mostly derived from the Icelandic one) and Icelandic folk tales.
Einar's world is populated by Elf
Elf
An elf is a being of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of divine beings endowed with magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of mankind...
s, "Hidden people" or "Huldufolk
Huldufólk
Huldufólk are elves in Icelandic folklore. Building projects in Iceland are sometimes altered to prevent damaging the rocks where they are believed to live. According to these Icelandic folk beliefs, one should never throw stones because of the possibility of hitting the huldufólk...
", Vættir
Vættir
Vættir or wights are nature spirits in the Norse religion. These nature spirits divide up into 'families', including the Álfar , Dvergar , Jötnar , and even gods, the Æsir and Vanir, who are understood to be prominent families among them. The term 'families' is often translated as 'clans' or...
, Jötnar, angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
s and troll
Troll
A troll is a supernatural being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In origin, the term troll was a generally negative synonym for a jötunn , a being in Norse mythology...
s, by beautiful women and bold warriors, and most of all a layer of symbolic content that can invariably be felt, but not always understood.
A hint to some deeper meaning in Einar's powerful art is for example: "Karma" an eternal law of energy which returns all action towards its origin.
Like in Christ's saying that one will reap what one has sown.
That same law or eternal principle, changes the will and desires of the psyche or so to speak. This is because of the fed up condition or state of "mind" or psyche.
One will eventually be tired and sick of destruction of nature or other people's lives and the desire for constructive live-giving actions will be dominant.
One example of this is the sculpture "Skuld" where Einar uses Icelandic Mythological symbolism of "Urdur, Verdandi and Skuld" which were the witches of destiny or "Karma".
There are also very positive hints in other pieces of Einar's masterful art, to that, that every being or lifeform is eternal in its essence and evolves and chances on the outer sides or layers or material sides of its consciousness like the body, thoughts and desire.
This outer part or detail of the consciousness is not even understood in physics, phenomenon of time, space and matter that is to say.
The connection of the soul or rather its eternal and unchangeable part or layer of the whole consciousness to the world of time, space and matter is even further away from understanding except with symbols, and eventually later on, and only with self experience.
Henry Goddard Leach (see references) described Einar Jónsson like this:
- All things considered, Jonsson is unique in the world of art.
- If he had any prototype they were the symbolic artists of ancient
- Egypt. But Jonsson's nearest spiritual relative is William BlakeWilliam BlakeWilliam Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
.
In recent years Einar's plasters have been cast in bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
and placed in the garden of his home and studio or in city parks in Reykjavík and throughout Iceland.
He donated his work to the Einar Jónsson Museum in Reykjavík
Reykjavík
Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...
, which opened in 1923.
Public monuments
- The Outlaw - 1900
- Jónas HallgrímssonJónas HallgrímssonJónas Hallgrímsson was an Icelandic poet, author and naturalist. He was one of the founders of the Icelandic journal Fjölnir, which was first published in Copenhagen in 1835...
- 1907 - Jón SigurðssonJón SigurðssonJón Sigurðsson was the leader of the 19th century Icelandic independence movement.Born at Hrafnseyri, near Arnarfjörður in the Westfjords area of Iceland, he was the son of a pastor, Sigurður Jónsson. He moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1833 to study grammar and history at the university there...
- 1911 - Christian IX - 1915
- Þorfinnur KarlsefniThorfinn Karlsefni (Jonsson)Thorfinn Karlsefni is a bronze statue by Einar Jónsson.It is located in Fairmount Park, on Kelly Drive, at the North end of Boat House Row, Philadelphia.It was commissioned by J. Bunford Samuel...
- 1920 - Hallgrímur PéturssonHallgrímur PéturssonHallgrímur Pétursson was one of Iceland's most famous poets and a minister at Hvalneskirkja and Saurbær in Hvalfjörður. The Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík and the Hallgrímskirkja in Saurbær are named after him. He was one of the most influential pastors during the Age of Orthodoxy...
- 1922 - Ingólfur ArnarsonIngólfur ArnarsonIngólfr Arnarson is recognized as the first permanent Nordic settler of Iceland. According to Landnáma he built his homestead in Reykjavík in 874...
- 1924 - Hannes Hafstein - 1931
Private commissions
- Memorial to the Eisert Family of Lodz, Poland 1935
- Monument to Dr. Charcot and His Ship - 1936
- Memorial to a Lost Airliner - 1952
- various cemetery markers including ones for Hannes Hafstein and his wife Ragnheiður
Other works
- Birth of PsychePsyche (psychology)The word psyche has a long history of use in psychology and philosophy, dating back to ancient times, and has been one of the fundamental concepts for understanding human nature from a scientific point of view. The English word soul is sometimes used synonymously, especially in older...
- 1915-18 - Breaking the Spell I - 1916-22
- Breaking the Spell II - 1916-27
- Dawn - 1897-1906
- End - 1906-38
- Evolution - 1913-14
- Fantasy on Yggdrasill, the Tree of Life - 1949
- Fate - 1900-27
- Grief - 1926-27
- Guilty Conscience - 1911-47
- King of AtlantisAtlantisAtlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
- 1919-22 - Pioneer - 1902-11
- Sparks I - 1913-31
- Spirit and Matter - 1918-22
- Thor Wrestling with Old AgeThorIn Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...
- 1939-40 - Trees of Life and Death - 1909-40
See also
- Artists of Iceland
- Ingólfur ArnarsonIngólfur ArnarsonIngólfr Arnarson is recognized as the first permanent Nordic settler of Iceland. According to Landnáma he built his homestead in Reykjavík in 874...
- Hannes Hafstein
- Jónas HallgrímssonJónas HallgrímssonJónas Hallgrímsson was an Icelandic poet, author and naturalist. He was one of the founders of the Icelandic journal Fjölnir, which was first published in Copenhagen in 1835...
Sources
- Einar Jónsson, Myndhöggvari, Skuggsjá, Bókabúð Olivers Steins SF Hafnarfjörður, 1982 ISBN 84105478
- Einar Jónsson, Myndir, Kaupmannahöfn, Prentsmiðja Martius Truelsens 1925
- Einar Jónsson: Poet in Stone, Einar Kvaran, photographs by David Finn, Sculpture Review, Winter 1998
- Einar Jónsson, Henry Goddard Leach, American-Scandinavian Review, Vol. 41& 42, 1953
- Einar Jónsson, Einar Jónsson,, American-Scandinavian Review, Vol. 3. 1915
External links
- http://www.skulptur.is/index.e.html