1949, Aage Storstein, Human Rights (Menneskerettighetene) (detail) -- Oslo City Hall

From the Oslo Municipality Art Collection website (www.kunstsamlingen.no):

The fresco visualizes the Norwegian constitution's anchoring in the ideals of the French Revolution, and is the one among the Town Hall's decorations that most clearly expresses a unified and abstract idea. The south wall depicts the revolution of 1789. The flames light the torch of freedom that two goddesses bring over from the east wall's Norway to the north wall's Norway together with the Declaration of Human Rights. The short wall's princess trapped in a rock and the bear in a den symbolize the Danish era, which ends with the torch of freedom summoning away the underground.

On the right of the north wall, King Carl Johan is on his way to the Norwegian princess and stands like Askeladden in front of the troll. The picture is dominated by the tree that the fairy tale queen Ragnhild dreamed of, and which predicted her son Harald Fairhair's unification of Norway. The Constitution is then drawn up, and the Eidsvoll men's fraternal chain can wrap around the tree. Wergeland receives the torch of freedom and Bjørnson sets the children's procession in motion. The fairy tale princess, a symbol of the people, rides the bear and receives the crown and scepter from Prince Christian Frederik, who had briefly aspired to the Norwegian throne. The left part of the picture alludes to the German occupation during World War II, as a motley crowd of underground trolls and occupiers try to usurp the coronation robe. The princess saves herself by raising the torch of freedom while her companion the bear stains her teeth.

The scenes are arranged so that the main motifs of the long walls appear vis-à-vis the doors on the opposite wall. This gives them an optimal effect of distance. The formal language is reminiscent of the late Cubism that Storstein encountered in 1920s Paris and also shows constructivist impulses that he later received from Georg Jacobsen. The horse in the occupation parable and the flame of freedom in the depiction of the revolution refer to Picasso's painting Guernica , which was exhibited in Oslo in 1938.

Taken on: July 5, 2025

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Photo by R.M. Lenox

Oslo City Hall

Oslo radhus

Norway

Norwegian

maleri

fresco

freske « less

Sets appears in: • All Paintings (chronological order) • 1900-1949 more » • Norwegian painters • Oslo City Hall • Date taken « less

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