Nikolai Astrup (1880-1928) lived and worked in the little West Norway village of J\u00f8lster for most of his life. Already as a little boy he gathered impressions and experiences from the surroundings, which were depicted in numerous sketches and drawings of landscapes and family life. These later served as more or less direct models for the motifs that he returned to repeatedly in his pictures.<\/p>\n
According to Astrup himself, what we see in Birthday in the Garden<\/i> is his wife Engel and his entire family gathered for a celebration. In a letter he writes: \u201cAll of us siblings and Engel were gathered in the Vicarage garden under the broad-leafed linden tree \u2013 gathered for the last time before we were spread to the winds. We used to sit there so often in the evenings\u00a0 \u2018carrying on\u2019 around the stone table \u2013 we brewed coffee with a little dash of something prohibited in it or with a bottle of my strong blueberry wine or rhubarb wine \u2013 the main house stood close by, broad white and low; the evening sky reflected yellow as an evil eye in the window, from whence someone often banged admonishingly to us youths down in the garden.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n