Bridal Procession on the Hardangerfjord

{{Short description|Norwegian painting by Hans Gude and Adolph Tidemand}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}}

{{distinguish|Brudeferden i Hardanger}}

{{Infobox artwork

| title = Bridal Procession on the Hardangerfjord

| other_language_1 = Norwegian

| other_title_1 = {{lang|no|Brudeferd i Hardanger}}

| wikidata = Q2841473

| image = Adolph Tidemand & Hans Gude - Bridal Procession on the Hardangerfjord - Google Art Project.jpg

| image_size = 350px

| artist = Hans Gude and Adolph Tidemand

| year = {{start date|1848}}

| catalogue = NG.M.00467

| medium = Oil on canvas

| height_metric = 93

| width_metric = 130

| metric_unit = cm

| museum = National Gallery

| city = Oslo

| website = {{URL|www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/collection/object/NG.M.00467}}

}}

Bridal Procession on the Hardanger (Norwegian: Brudeferd i Hardanger) is an 1848 oil painting by Hans Gude and Adolph Tidemand. {{cite web

| url = http://samling.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/object/NG.M.00467

| title = Hans Gude, Adolph Tidemand, Bridal Procession on the Hardangerfjord – Nasjonalmuseet – Collection}}{{cite book

| author = Gérard Denizeau

| title = Vocabulaire des arts visuels du XIXe siècle

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TE9NAAAAYAAJ

| year = 2004

| publisher = Minerve

| isbn = 978-2-86931-108-4}}

Gude, aged just 23, painted the landscapes and Tidemand, a decade his senior, the bridal party.{{cite book

| author = Margaret Hayford O'Leary

| title = Culture and Customs of Norway

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MmceC9bpMggC&pg=PA171

| year = 2010

| publisher = ABC-CLIO

| isbn = 978-0-313-36248-4| pages = 171–}}

Each of the Norwegian artists had studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf before they first met in Hardanger in 1843, and the painting was made in the winter of 1847–1848 in Düsseldorf. It measures {{cvt|93|x|130|cm|in}} and has been held by the National Gallery in Oslo since 1895.{{cite web

| url = https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/bridal-procession-on-the-hardangerfjord/EwGseaUks6vhrQ

| title = Bridal Procession on the Hardangerfjord – Hans Gude – Google Arts & Culture}}

It is one of the best known Norwegian paintings,{{cite book

| author = Arne Neset

| title = Arcadian Waters and Wanton Seas: The Iconology of Waterscapes in Nineteenth-century Transatlantic Culture

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ZUPRp-aDtvIC&pg=PA122

| year = 2009

| publisher = Peter Lang

| isbn = 978-1-4331-0297-4

| pages = 122–}}{{cite book

| author = Anna C. Rue

| title = "In The Party Circle": Norwegian-Americans and their fiddle

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qWoOAQAAMAAJ

| year = 2009

| publisher = University of Wisconsin—Madison}}

and is considered to be an excellent example of romantic nationalism in Norway, combining a romanticised landscape with traditions of Norwegian life.{{cite book

| last = Tuchtenhagen

| first = R.

| title = Kleine Geschichte Norwegens

| publisher = C.H.Beck

| series = Beck'sche Reihe

| year = 2011

| isbn = 978-3-406-61563-4

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jFtrd53yN9wC&pg=PA118

| language = de

| access-date = 24 August 2018

| page = 118

| quote = Werke wie Højfjæld (Hochfjell, 1857) und das gemeinsam mit Tidemand angefertigte Brudeferd i Hardanger (s. o.) sowie Brenninger (Brände, 1862) wurden zum Inbegriff der norwegischen nationalen Topographie. Nicht nur in der ...

}}{{cite book

| author = Toril Moi

| title = Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism: Art, Theater, Philosophy

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Kdn9AAAAQBAJ&pg=PT246

| date = 14 February 2008

| publisher = OUP Oxford

| isbn = 978-0-19-150264-4

| pages = 246–

}}{{cite book

| author = Daniel M. Grimley

| title = Grieg: Music, Landscape and Norwegian Identity

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Nzyt33bbAvQC&pg=PA67

| year = 2006

| publisher = Boydell Press

| isbn = 978-1-84383-210-2

| pages = 67–

}}

The painting depicts a bridal procession, crossing a fjord in rowing boats after the wedding. The first boat carries the groom, tipping his hat, and the bride, in her bridal crown and traditional red costume of the Hardanger region. They are accompanied by some wedding guests: one person is pouring a drink from a jug, a musician is playing a fiddle, and a man is standing to fire a gun in celebration. The boat crew are dressed in typical Bunad costumes. In the distance are two other boats conveying wedding guests, while more people wait on the shoreline, and others wave from a promontory.{{cite book

| author = Ann Schmiesing

| title = Norway's Christiania Theatre, 1827–1867: From Danish Showhouse to National Stage

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_dJqOUOLmtYC&pg=PA98

| year = 2006

| publisher = Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press

| isbn = 978-0-8386-4107-1

| pages = 98–

}}{{cite book

| title = Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kulturgeschichte Spaniens

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9M3Iq6RcZQgC

| year = 1916

| publisher = Aschendorff

}}

In the background is a stave church, under a blue summer sky with bright sunlight catching small clouds and snow on the mountains and a glacier.

While the scenery resembles Hardangerfjord and the Folgefonna glacier, Gude later wrote that it was not a view of a particular location, but rather was a composite made from his observations.{{cite web

| last1 = Skurtveit

| first1 = Nina

| title = Brudeferden i Hardanger

| url = https://www.nrk.no/kultur/brudeferden-i-hardanger-1.6259635

| website = Kultur og underholdning

| publisher = Norsk rikskringkasting

| accessdate = 24 August 2018

| language = no

| date = 13 October 2008

}}

The painting was commissioned as the backdrop for a tableau vivant.{{cite book

| author1 = Mette Hjort

| author2 = Ursula Lindqvist

| title = A Companion to Nordic Cinema

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vy3YCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA282

| date = 24 March 2016

| publisher = John Wiley & Sons

| isbn = 978-1-118-47527-0

| pages = 282–

}} The soirée at the Christiania Theatre in March 1849 included a theatrical group dressed in traditional costumes aboard a boat who performed a song "Brudefærden" ("The Wedding Procession") by Andreas Munch with music by Halfdan Kjerulf, with the painting itself serving as scenery.{{cite book

| author1 = Ann Falahat

| author2 = Marit Ingeborg Lange

| author3 = Nasjonalgalleriet (Norway)

| title = Hans Fredrik Gude på papir

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KH1HAQAAIAAJ

| year = 2003

| publisher = Nasjonalgalleriet

| isbn = 978-82-90744-87-3

}}

Gude and Tidemand collaborated on other paintings, including at least five versions of the Hardanger bridal procession made around 1850, each with differences.[https://snl.no/Brudeferd_i_Hardanger Brudeferd i Hardanger], Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian) The prime version of 1848 was bought by the National Gallery in Oslo in 1895. A second version of 1848 includes Ole Bull as the violinist: he had performed at the Christiania Theatre. Three versions were painted in 1853, of which one was sold at Grev Wedels Plass Auksjoner in 2002 for NOK 5.1 million.[https://gwpa.no/nb/lots/3098 Gude, Hans Fredrik (1825-1903), Brudeferden i Hardanger 1853], Grev Wedels Plass Auksjoner, 21 November 2002 (in Norwegian)[https://www.bt.no/btmagasinet/i/853LG/heime-paa-perm Norskare enn dette blir det ikkje. No kjem det heim til Hardanger.] Bergens Tidende, 2 May 2014 (in Norwegian)

Parallels have been drawn between these paintings by Gude and Tidemand, and the first version of Washington Crossing the Delaware made by fellow Düsseldorf artist Emanuel Leutze from 1848 to 1850. The first version of Leutze's painting was destroyed in Germany during the Second World War, but two later versions survived in the US.

File:Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, MMA-NYC, 1851.jpg|Emanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851, Metropolitan Museum of Art

File:Hans Gude & Adolph Tidemand - Brudeferden i Hardanger (1853).jpg|1853 version, private collection

File:Brudeferden i Hardanger - Bridal journey in Hardanger.jpg|Parody, 1887