It is well known that the great French artists of La Belle Époque were hugely inspired by the art of Japan and the East. But what is rarely mentioned today is the period of a few years in the 1890s when Scandinavian art, Norwegian in particular, was suddenly and powerfully all the rage in Paris. And not only painting, but also literature, drama and – perhaps most of all – music. For two years in particular, 1895 and 1896, the sunburst of orientalism was clouded over by art from a very different part of the world – by the cool landscapes of the north. Le Figaro raged that: “The Norwegians tyrannise us!” Actress Sarah Bernhardt scornfully called it: la Norderie. But, as one critic writes: “the day of the divine Sarah with her melodramas and poisoned daggers was giving way to Norway-fever.”

EPISODE PHOTO

Edvard Munch: Rue Lafayette (1891) 

Public Domain

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