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A Portrait of the Nation

In 1884, Oscar Wergeland's painting Eidsvold 1814 was given as a gift to the Norwegian parliament. Since then it has been hanging in the National Assembly Hall and is one of Norway's most reproduced paintings.
On the occasion of the 2014 bicentennial of the Norwegian constitution, artist Trond Hugo Haugen has made a new work, a portrait that shows the nation today.

By artist Trond Hugo Haugen
Published 28 Apr, 2014
 
A Portrait of the Nation (after Eidsvold 1814), 2014, 213x300 cm. The photograph was taken with an analogue large format camera with perspective correction. An extreme wide angle lens was sent from Germany. The curtain arrangement in the background is based on Oscar Wergeland's first sketch for Eidsvold 1814, dated 1882.

A Portrait of the Nation (after Eidsvold 1814), 2014, 213x300 cm. The photograph was taken with an analogue large format camera with perspective correction. An extreme wide angle lens was sent from Germany. The curtain arrangement in the background is based on Oscar Wergeland's first sketch for Eidsvold 1814, dated 1882.

Early sketch of the expected perspective and placement.

Because of the ongoing restoration works, access to the assembly room was limited. Joakim Hoen of Hoen Arkitektur made a digital model to find the lens height and distance from the walls, and to simulate evening sun on the 11th of May.

Planning the shoot, early plan sketch.

Test shoot, september 2013. Photo: Istvan Virag.

Rigging the day before the shoot. The podium had to be extended by a considerable amount to reach the perspective of the painting. Storyline delivered 17 kilowatts for the shoot. Foto: Istvan Virag

The shoot took place Sunday 2nd February 2014. Photographer: André Severin Johansen. Photo: Istvan Virag.

Models arriving Eidsvoll by coach. Photo: Istvan Virag.

Several montages were made to find the right strategy for how to mediate between the space of the painting and the real space.

Analysis of the horizon line to find the horizon of the painting. The analysis showed that the floor and the ceiling in the painting are not perspectivally coherent.

A Portrait of the Nation (the Assembly Room), 2014, 150x210 cm. The photograph is part of the art project A Portrait of the Nation by Trond Hugo Haugen. Photographer: André Severin Johansen.

The participants were selected based on demographic data from Statistics Norway. Five million inhabitants of this country were scaled down to 112 representatives. In the painting, one person is sitting on a chair, this was replaced by a wheelchair. Artist Trond Hugo Haugen directed the shoot. Photo: Istvan Virag

A markup showing how the lights should be set. The retouching was done by Martin Tosterud at Postproduksjon.

A Portrait of the Nation (after Eidsvold 1814), 2014, 213x300 cm.

The art project A Portrait of the Nation

The assembly room at Eidsvoll and Oscar Wergeland’s portrait Eidsvold 1814 are inextricably linked, in the narrative of the birth of the nation as well as in the public mind. Today, the room has been restored to its assumed 1814 condition, whereas the painting was done 70 years after the 1814 event, with few reliable sources. The photographic work A Portrait of the Nation (after Eidsvold 1814) ties the rooms closer together by filling the historic room with a contemporary event.
Trying to match Wergeland’s artistic interpretations with the real room is about finding a point between illusion and reality. The space in the painting is not perspectivally real, neither is the space of the photograph. These ambiguities gave the new version a necessary freedom.

The people in the photograph

The people in the photograph are us. 112 of us, the same as the number of representatives in that first constitutional assembly, as shown in Oscar Wergeland’s painting from 1885, but the people in the photograph represent Norway in 2014.
We are as many women as men, 57 of us are working age, two unemployed, six students. Only one farmer. Most of us are ethnic Norwegians, 13 with immigrant backgrounds, mostly from Poland. One is Saami. Six are queer, one pregnant.
The people in the photograph live in Norway.

Facts:

A Portrait of the Nation is an art project by Trond Hugo Haugen. Produced by KORO/URO. Co-produced by Akershus Kunstsenter. The work is part of the exhibition 1814 Revisited - The Past is Still Present curated by Rikke Komissar for Akershus Kunstsenter. Sponsored by Fritt Ord and produced in collaboration with Eidsvoll 1814, Rom Eiendom, Folk & Film, Postproduksjon and Megaprint. Photographer André Severin Johansen.