Object Image

A Mountain Climber

The mountains, light, and human beings (both as bodies and genders) are the mainstays of J.F.Willumsen’s vitalistic art. Nowhere are these themes addressed with the same power and conviction as in A Mountain Climber.

The modern woman The woman, Willumsen’s second wife Edith Wessel (1875-1966), has brought herself to the top of the world, gazing out across the monumental Alpine landscape. As a depiction of the “new”, and in the Nietzschean sense ”great human being” in nature, one cannot imagine a more powerful expression of man’s command of and union with nature.

Kinship between J.F. Willumsen and Johannes V. Jensen As a ruler of nature and the world, A Mountain Climber has a kinship w...

1912
Oil on canvas
210.0 x 170.5cm
KMS3413
Image © J.F. Willumsen
Text © National Gallery of Denmark, 2018

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