The Baldishol Tapestry–The White House Replica and Others

By Robbie LaFleur

Hermund Kleppa delved deeply into the story of generous Norwegian-American women who wanted to celebrate their heritage by presenting a replica of the Baldishol Tapestry to Mrs. Calvin Coolidge. Dream big!–they wanted their gift to hang in the White House, no less. Read this addendum after enjoying “The Baldishol Tapestry in the White House” by Hermund Kleppa.

The Baldishol Committee was formed following the Norse-American Centennial in 1925, to arrange the gift to Mrs. Coolidge. The Coolidges had raised the profile of the Centennial with their visit. Those of you who are familiar with the Twin Cities in Minnesota will find it entirely logical that while other states might be represented as a whole, in Minnesota it was necessary to have both a Minneapolis and a St. Paul subcommittee, with the names of the members on each side of the letterhead.

Records of the Baldishol Committee were given to the Minnesota Historical Society at the Minnesota History Center. (A list of the file contents) The file includes a beautiful hand-penned journal listing the finances; here are two pages of expenses.

Nearly 5000 Norwegian-American women donated money for the tapestry; some donations were as little as a dollar, a few were in the hundreds. Kristi Sekse Meland was paid $1500 for the replica. Three beautifully bound books listing the donors were made–one for Mrs. Coolidge, one to stay with the tapestry at the White House, and the third for the committee. The committee copy is at the Minnesota History Center. (The introductory pages are here.) From the forward:

They have felt that no memorial could be more in keeping with the sprit of the centennial than a copy wrought with exquisite care and workmanship of the famous old Baldishol tapestry from the last years of the twelfth century. They have chosen this because it embodies in a form of rare beauty and interest the evidence of the ancient civilization from which they have come and the inheritance they have brought with them into American life.

Perhaps your relative was among the donors? The full list from the commemorative book is here.

After the tapestry was delivered to Minnesota, the Committee arranged for a local viewing and a “splendid program”–for 35 cents.

Hermund Kleppa wondered whether the translation of Hans Dedekam’s book about the tapestry was delivered to the White House. When Mrs. Bothne wrote to Mrs. Bryn (wife of the ambassador) on May 19, asking whether Mrs. Coolidge would be able to receive the delegation on June 8, she mentioned the Dedekam book. Mrs. Bothne asked, “Has Mons Breidvik finished the translation of the French “Resume” which is to be inserted in Hans Dedkam’s [sic] book and will it be in Washington before we arrive?”

I don’t think the Dedekam book or translation was delivered. It isn’t mentioned in the committee records that describe the festive activities around the presentation. From the Baldishol Committee records:

Mrs. Bothne and Mrs. Kylle were chosen to present the tapestry on the first anniversary of the centennial, June the 8th, 1926. Madame Bryn held a great reception at the Norwegian legation for these two members of the committee and Mrs. Reque, representing the New York Auxiliary, on June 7th. And on June 8th Madame Bryn gave a luncheon for them to which the wives of Congressmen and Senators of Norwegian descent were invited. Afterwards the whole party was transported to the White House and presented to Mrs. Coolidge by Madame Bryn. Mrs. Bothne then presented the tapestry to Mrs. Coolidge voicing the gratitude of the Norwegian women for her honoring them by her presence at the Centennial celebration. As a gift to her personally she was also given a beautifully bound book containing the names of all those who contributed to the tapestry and also the Centennial gold medal. A similar book similar to the [one] given to Mrs. Coolidge was given to the White House to be kept together with the tapestry.

It’s sad that the White House Baldishol has remained in storage, but in the summer of 2020 you will have the opportunity to view another copy of the Baldishol Tapestry, also believed to be woven by Kristi Sekse Meland, at Norway House in Minneapolis. This copy, one of three full-sized replicas owned by the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, will be lent to Norway House as part of the show, The Baldishol: A Medieval Norwegian Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles.

Replica believed to be woven by Kristi Sekse Meland

At one point Vesterheim Director Marion Nelson thought that the copy owned by Vesterheim was perhaps the one given to the White House, and in 1976 wrote to Den Norske Husfliden (DNH, the Norwegian Handcraft Association). Synnøve Tidemand responded that the Vesterheim Baldishol was woven by Kristi Sexe Meland for DNH and sold through Husfliden. Vesterheim Curator Laurann Gilbertson said that information fits, because the donor acquired other textiles from Husfliden, some of which were donated to the museum. (See the letter.)

A second copy of the Baldishol Tapestry was woven in Norway and donated by the Baltimore Seamen’s Church when it closed in 1985.

Replica woven by Maria Mundal

The third Vesterheim replica was woven by Alma Amalie Guttersen of St. Paul, Minnesota, who studied tapestry weaving in Norway and had the yarns dyed there. Alma was on the planning committee for the Norse-American Centennial in 1925 and was inspired to learn Norwegian weaving after seeing the Baldishol copy that was given to the Coolidges. Alma was born in 1865 in Trondheim, immigrated to Minnesota in 1866, and died in 1966 in Florida.

Replica woven by Alma Guttersen

If you would like to see the original tapestry, 2020 will also be the year, when the new Nasjonalmuseet (National Museum) opens in Oslo.

Almost a century after the Norse-American Centennial and the celebration of the Baldishol tapestry through the White House gift, it’s a good time to look at the history of the tapestry and its inspirational qualities. Mark your calendars for the opening of The Baldishol: A Medieval Norwegian Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles, June 26, 2020.

Thanks to Laurann Gilbertson, Curator at the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum, for information on the museum’s copies of the Baldishol Tapestry.

Updated, April 2024

The Baldishol Tapestry in the White House

2 Replies

Editor’s note: There’s a Minnesota connection to the Baldishol tapestry, or more correctly, a connection to Norwegian-American women across the United States. A copy of the revered Baldishol tapestry was given to Mrs. Calvin Coolidge in 1926. Did it ever hang in the White House? Hermund Kleppa researched this event in 2010. This article originally appeared in the Kulturhistorisk Leksikon (Cultural History Encyclopedia), published by Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane (the County Archives of Sogn and Fjordane).

By Hermund Kleppa (translation by Robbie LaFleur)

On Tuesday, June 8, 1926, Mrs. Calvin Coolidge welcomed a delegation of women. It was their honor to deliver a gift—a copy of the well-known Baldishol tapestry and a presentation book.

In the magazine For By og Bygd, number 16, 7/8, 1926, there was a small piece with the title “Baldishol Tapestry to the Presidential Residence in Washington.” In that piece there were several threads to take hold of, several clues to follow to find out a bit more: the Baldishol Tapestry, those who gave the gift, and the people involved—Kristi Sekse, Mons Breidvik and Hans Dedekam. What happened to the tapestry after Mrs. Coolidge accepted it for the White House? The author of this article takes hold of several threads and pulls them together.

“The last copy that Kristi Sekse wove of the old Norwegian Baldishol tapestry, is now at home in “The White House” in Washington, Five thousand Norwegian-American women who wished to have a commemoration of the Norwegian-American Centennial in the White House pooled their money and bought it. Later a delegation of women brought the gift that they gave to the First Lady, along with a book by Director Hans Dedekam on the tapestry, including a section of the contents in English, beautifully decorated [illustrated] and bound by Mons Breidvik.”

In a lecture by Mrs. Gisle Bothne, she noted, among other things: “Many thousand Norwegian-American women, from all areas of the country, came together to give a gift to the White House, and we were able to obtain a copy of the widely-known Baldishol Tapestry that was woven by a Norwegian woman in the 12th century. This weaving is an exact copy of the Baldishol Tapestry and is woven with great care by a woman who has been counted among the greatest tapestry artists in modern Norway.”

Mrs. Coolidge gave thanks for the gift, and said, among other things, that when she came to the White House she thought there was too little of a personal aspect to the president’s residence. She had tried in small ways to rectify that and hoped that future First Ladies would continue to do so. To that end, the Baldishol tapestry was a welcome addition, for which she was very pleased.

The Baldishol Tapestry

“The old Norwegian Baldishol tapestry” came to light one day in 1879 in Eastern Norway. An old church was torn down on the Baldishol farm at Nes in Hedmark, where they found a textile fragment between two layers of flooring. It appeared to be a portion of an ancient woven tapestry. The tapestry came later to the Norsk Industrimuseum in Oslo and was later known as the Baldishol tapestry. The Norsk Industrimuseum is today (2009) a division of the National Museum for Art, Architecture, and Design.

The Baldishol Tapestry has been described in many sources, and there are many opinions on its age and origin. In Norsk Kulturhistorie (Aschehoug 1979) it reads:

The Baldishol tapestry is woven in gobelin technique, 2 meters long and 1.18 meters high. The material is hand-dyed wool in clear red, yellow, green, dark blue and lighter blue in several nuances. It is possible that the motif in the left-hand-section symbolizes the month of April (judging by the letters in the curve of the arched upper border) and that the knight to the right represents May. Perhaps many pieces—that we don’t know about—were put together as a year’s calendar. Researchers think that the tapestry was woven in the first half of the 1200s, perhaps later, likely in Norway.

But on one point there is full agreement: the Baldishol tapestry is one of the oldest existing woven tapestries in Norway, and the best known. It also stands out in a European context. Hans Dedakam opens his book on the Baldishol tapestry (1918) with these words: “Without comparison one of the most important and interesting pieces in Nordic, and even European textile art.”

Norse Centennial Daughters Club

In 1925 Norwegian-Americans celebrated a Centennial; it was in 1825 that the sloop Restauration reached America with Cleng Peerson from Rogaland and his followers. They were called “sloopers” in immigrant literature. President and Mrs. Coolidge visited the great event in Minnesota in June 1925. The president gave a long and reportedly powerful speech.

But there were some women who were annoyed that it was men who organized most of the jubilee and there was little about Norwegian-American women in the publication, Norse-American Centennial 1825-1925. So they created their own organization, the Norse Centennial Daughters Club, and published their own book, Norse-American Women 1825-1925. Their overriding goal was to promote Norwegian-American literature, art, and music.

In the list of the members of the Centennial Daughters we find many Sogn and Fjordane names: Mrs. H.H. Onstad, Hopland, Hillestad, Vee, Lee and Ylvisaker.

..this famous tapestry..

At the annual meeting of the Centennial Daughters on February 1, 1926, Mrs. G. Bothne, Minneapolis, was invited to head a committee with the assignment to raise money for a copy of the “famous tapestry,” the Baldishol tapestry, and give it to the White House. The committee had many subcommittees, among others, one located in Minneapolis and one in St. Paul.

The committee leadership must have worked fast and effectively. A short time later the goal was reached, “As a gift from the Norse-American women, a tapestry is to be presented to the President and Mrs. Coolidge some time this spring.” The tapestry was woven by Kristi Sexe, known the world over for her weaving. She spun the yarn herself and dyed it with plant dyes. The price was 1500 dollars.

Kristi Sekse Meland

Halldor Sandvin, former principal at Framnes Folk High School in Hardanger, now living in Telemark, wrote a pamphlet about the woman who wove the copy of the Baldishol tapestry.

Kristi Meland (1886-1965) grew up in Tyssedal in Odda in Hardanger. Her parents were Jakob Jorgensen from the Freim farm and Sigrid Johannesdotter from the Sandvin farm. Both of these farms lie south of Tyssedal. Kristi was married for the first time in 1903 to Sjur Sekse and as the custom was, took Sekse as her last name. They settled in Ålvik. In 1915 they separated and were divorced. When Kristi was married in 1929 for the second time to Halldor Meland from Espe, she changed her last name to Meland.

After some years in Ålvik Kristi moved back to Odda to a house she rented at Sandvin. In 1922 or 1923 she settled in Kvam (further north and west in Hardanger). There she bought the Eikhaug property, most often called Vadlandshovden. The place lies just east of Norheimsund. From Eikhaug she had a view right over Samlafjorden towards Vikøylandet to the south, Vikøy church and Fosslid where the artist Mons Breidvik lived. Mons Breidvik and Kristi Sekse worked together often, Sandvin wrote.

Sandvin figured that Kristi developed her skill in spinning and weaving from childhood on, during a time that spinning, knitting and weaving were commonly women’s work on the farm. She studied at a young age, first at Henriette Schønberg Erken’s husmorskole (“housewife school”) in Hamar and later a three-year course at Den Kvinnelige Industriskole (The Women’s Industry School) in Kristiania (Oslo). In 1925/26 she participated in two courses at the Statens Håndverks- og Kunstindustriskole (State Handcraft and Industrial School). “Pattern Designer Kristi Sexe” was the designation on her diploma. Kristi was especially interested in natural dyeing.

Kristi Sekse Meland Kristi began teaching art weaving shortly thereafter, and ran a weaving school from 1927. In the brochure for Kristi Meland’s Weaving Studio she advertised a course that lasted four months. Practical weaving, art weaving, spinning, natural dyeing with plants and color theory were on the curriculum. Kristi Meland died on December 4, 1965, and was buried in the graveyard at Vikøy Church, beside her husband. Both graves are still preserved and cared for by the Kvam parish.

Kristi Meland’s Baldisholteppe

Sandvin doesn’t provide information on whose idea it was to weave a copy of the Baldishol Tapestry, who was involved in the project, when Kristi Sekse began the work, and when she was finished. It seems that Sandvin did not have complete records to check. He wrote the following:

“Kristi was chosen to copy the Baldishol Tapestry. She was finished with Industry School in 1920. She must have received this honored commission early in the 1920s, surely after a recommendation from the school. It was said that drawing, spinning, dyeing and weaving took a half year. The work attracted attention. She had the most prominent of advisors, which could certainly have been confusing. The work required a weaver who was a self-starter and independent. We don’t know if she had help with the work, but the result was in any case hers.”

An inquiry of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (of which the Kunstindustrimuseum, the Arts and Crafts Museum, is now a part) revealed that the museum had very little on this. The only thing that they had was a piece in the newspaper Tidens Tegn (Sign of the Times), December 9, 1925. It said that Kristi Sekse had “just” finished work on a copy of the Baldishol Tapestry, and the the tapestry was “now” on view in a gallery in the Arts and Crafts Museum where the original was hung. Her work garnered praise. Director Grosch commented “with much warmth on the skillful work.” The article ended with the note that the tapestry would be sent to America “in the near future.”

Note: Director Grosch (1848-1929) was connected to the Christiania Kunstindustrimuseum from its founding in 1876; he was a conservator in 1878 and director from 1894-1919. He was enthusiastic in his work with handcraft. He wrote a great deal on art and handcraft in newspapers and magazines, and wrote several publications about textile art.

When Tidens Tegn wrote that the tapestry was “just” finished, It couldn’t mean within the last one or two weeks. The tapestry was on exhibit in City Hall in Odda during the summer of 1925. But “recently” could be in relation to a project that had been underway for several years. In the magazine Nordmands-Forbundet (Oslo) it states in Number 1-1926, at the “The Baldishol Tapestry, or more correctly, the copy by Kristi Sekse in Norheimsund, Hardanger” had arrived in New York and would be sent on to the Norwegian minister (ambassador) Bryn in Washington.

Mons Breidvik

A piece from Frå By og Bygd (From Town and Country) stated that a book was sent with the tapestry, a book on the Baldishol Tapestry written by “Director” Dedekam, with a portion of the contents in English. The book was beautifully illustrated and bound by Mons Breidvik.

Mons Breidvik (1881-1950), known for drawing and graphic arts, was born and grew up in the Breivik community, at that time in the municipality of Brekke, Sogn og Fjordane, now (2009) the municipality of Gulen. Breivik lies 3-4 kilometers east of the Rutledal ferry stop. Mons Breidvik studied with Harriet Backer, Erik Werenskiold and Johan Nordhagen, and studied and worked several places abroad.

In the winter of 1897-98 Breivik went to Framnes Ungdomskule (folkehøgskule, a folk high school). There he met Anna Heradstveit from Kvam. They married in 1905 and had six children. The artist-couple lived in Breidvik from 1905-07, at Heradstveit from 1907-10 and after 1910 at Fosslid, near Vikøy Church. Anna died in childbirth in 1914. Breidvik had three subsequent marriages.

Mons Breidvik lived in America for nine years. On April 5, 1925, he took a boat to America from Bergen, the Bergensfjord. He wanted to try his luck as an artist on the other side of the Atlantic.

The hundred-year celebration of immigration from Norway was in his travel plans. On the boat he met many people who were en route to the hundred year jubilee. Later he met many, many more. He was present at the celebration in Minnesota in June, where it was said 60,000 people were in attendance. He heard the speech by President Coolidge and made a portrait of the president. Mons Breidvik had several exhibits in America, and he completed several large works. A monumental work can be found at Grace Episcopal Church, Long Island.

He came back to his homeland and Kvam in 1936. He died August 15, 1950 and was buried in the graveyard at Vikøy Church.

The Idea

It was Mons Breidvik who came up with the idea to give Kristi Meland’s copy of the Baldishol Tapestry to The White House. There was a notice in the Chicago newspaper, Skandinaven, May 25, 1926, signed “H. Bryn” (the Norwegian ambassador in Washington). The ambassador wrote that a notice in the same newspaper on April 23, incorrectly stated that it was his idea, that he and his wife had come up with the idea after seeing the Baldishol Tapestry on a trip to Norway and thereafter took the initiative to raise money. That is wrong, Bryn wrote. “It was the Painter Mons Breidvik…who had the idea.”

Hans Dedekam’s Book on the Baldishol Tapestry

The author of the book Baldishol Tapestry, which was reported by Frå Bygd og By to have been sent with the tapestry, was Hans Dedekam (1872-1928), an artist and art historian. He was the director of the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum [in Trondheim] (from 1908) and the Kristiania Kunstindustrimuseum (from 1919). The book came out in 1918 and was dedicated to Director Grosch on his 70th birthday. It has 60 pages, a French summary, and 38 illustrations. Only 300 copies were printed.

The Baldishol Tapestry in the White House—A History

The first lady, Mrs. Calvin Coolidge (full name: Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge), welcomed the women who came with the copy of the Baldishol Tapestry, and said in her speech thanking for the gift that it will be a part of her plans to do more decorating in the presidential residence. We get the distinct impression that both the recipient and those who gave the gift were quite satisfied. And it is reasonable to believe that “the copy of the old Norwegian Baldishol Tapestry” graced one of the walls. But there is the question of what happened with the tapestry later, under other first ladies. Were they equally enthusiastic?

Melissa Naulin in The White House had the answer. In a thorough investigation of the history of the tapestry up to today, it turns out they have the tapestry. It measures 83” x 45” (210.2 cm x 114.9 cm) and is in good condition. On the other hand, it is a bit disappointing that she indicated the tapestry perhaps never hung in the White House at all. They have no proof of it. She wrote:

“I am afraid that the history of the tapestry here at the White House is not very exciting. We do not know if Mrs. Coolidge ever displayed the tapestry after receiving it. We have never seen it in room photographs from that period. We conduct an annual inventory of furnishing but for some reason the tapestry does not appear in the inventory until 1931, and by that time, it has already been moved to a cedar storage close to the Third Floor. The inventories indicate that it remained there until at least 1937, when it disappeared altogether from the inventory for 40 years. The tapestry was rediscovered in storage in 1977 and re-added to the inventory. It has not been displayed since.”

But what about the book? While the Baldishol Tapestry seems to be in perfect condition and safe storage, Melissa Naulin was not able to find out what happened or didn’t happen to the book on the tapestry. The Frå By og Bygd article said the Dedekam book came with it. But did it? Not all the records are in agreement. A couple of places note that there was a book with a list of the names of the representatives of the giver, the Norse-American Centennial Daughters, but no other book is named. Melissa Naulin was not able to say they have a book on the Baldishol Tapestry. But they do have the book that lists the names. The cover is decorated with the word Baldisholteppet as the title, and a viking ship with women on board as decoration. The message is easy to understand: Women with Norwegian roots coming to the White House with a gift (a copy of the Baldishol Tapestry). One can speculate that the book for some reason or other went astray, that the delegation did not have the Dedekam book with them, or that it disappeared for another reason. The decoration on the cover of the book with names is definitely the work of Mons Breidvik.

Is this interesting?

To conclude, we can ask: Is this event back in 1926—that a Norwegian tapestry was given to the White House—interesting? Is this nothing more than what we today would call a publicity stunt?

Several things can be said. I believe the event was without a doubt important for the many people who gave the gift, and for the recipients, the Coolidges. And it was a gift tied to an important element of the American saga, the Norwegian immigration through a hundred years. The gift symbolized the link between the two countries, like the words on postcards, “hands across the sea.” It was a high-quality gift, a skillful copy of a piece of important textile art from the Norwegian and European Middle Ages. And above all, the gift and the event were a womens initiative. That’s quite apparent from Breidvik’s drawing. When have we seen a Viking ship with a woman on the prow, and when have we seen women sailing the ship?

And finally we can add that the event in 1926 is relevant to Sogn and Fjordane in many ways. One point of connection is that a national treasure such as the Baldishol Tapestry is tied to national ownership. Everyone owns a small share of it. Another connection is the one of the participants, Mons Breidvik, was born and grew up in Gulen, and is a Sogn and Fjordane artist. And, since the gift was an emigration/immigration initiative, it has a clear connection to Sogn and Fjordane, the area that in relation to its population, had the highest level of emigration to America.

Baldisholteppet—A Treasure from the Middle Ages

Leave a reply

Editor’s note: We are grateful for permission to present this translation of Art Historian Randi Nygaard Lium’s description of the Baldisholteppe (the Baldishol Tapestry), which appeared in her book, Tekstilkunst i Norge (Textile Art in Norway).

By Randi Nygaard Lium

The Baldishol tapestry, dated from 1040-1190 (with carbon dating), was found after a church auction in Baldishol Church in Nes in Hedmark in 1879. Louise Kildal, a niece of neighbors to the church, found the Baldisholteppet. After the auction ended, there were several items remaining, and it was among these leftovers that Louise found the tapestry. But when she found it, it was merely a rolled-up, dirty rag. She took it home and washed out the dirt and clay. She discovered it had an image, fine colors, and a special technique. It was so beautiful that she framed and hung it up in her home in Kristiania (now Oslo). Director Grosch from the Kunstindustrimuseum (the Arts and Crafts Museum) saw the tapestry and was very interested; it ended up with the museum purchasing it. Both the owner and buyer understood they had come upon a unique weaving that would gain a central place in textile history, both nationally and internationally. It is possible that the tapestry was woven in a workshop tied to a Middle Age monastery at Nesøya in Lake Mjøsa, a monastery that was tied to the Hamar diocese. A portion of the inventory in the Baldishol Church came from Nesøya.

This work is one of the very few tapestries in Gobelin technique that are preserved in Europe, and is the only preserved tapestry in this technique from the Middle Ages in Norway. It is a fragment of a longer weaving in the form of a frieze, which originally would have been 12 meters long. The fragment is 118 x 203 centimeters. It is woven with wool in the warp and weft.

The motif is divided into two architectural image sections with a man in each section. To the left we see a man with a bird in his hand and to the right a rider in armor on a reddish-brown horse. It is a colorful tapestry with clear colors, including red, white, blue, gold, and violet. The design is typical Romanesque. The men represent two of the twelve months, April on the left and May on the right. It is possible these two men were only a small part of a large weaving representing all the months. The short side doesn’t have an edging, but is torn, indicating it is part of a larger work. The fine colors, floral decorations and colored dots woven over the surfaces bind the two sections together.

On the Technique of the Baldisholteppet

The Baldishol tapestry is woven in Gobelin technique, which sets them apart from both the decorative textiles found in the Oseberg Viking ship, and the Överhogdals weaving. The tapestry in the Oseberg find also appeared to be woven in Gobelin, but there they used a “free” technique; that is, they created patterns by picking up threads.

Technically the Baldisholteppet is consistent with the weaving methods in the tapestry series from Halberstadt, Germany, and they anticipate the wave of European tapestries in Gobelin technique in the next centuries. Fully from the Middle Ages to our time Gobelin technique has remained the same. It was woven on an upright loom with a beam at the top and bottom, woven from the bottom to the top. It has a two-shaft binding with two pedals and two shafts. Pedals are not necessary, but then the shed must be plucked manually before the weft is laid in the warp.

The weft is wound into butterflies or wound on small bobbins. The weft is laid in the warp with arcs, and then beaten down so that the warp is completely covered. In this way you can create images, and almost any image can be woven.

It is easy to weave diagonal lines, but there are challenges in weaving a vertical line between two areas of color. If the color shift occurs along a vertical warp thread, a slit will occur unless the weaver uses a technique to weave the edges together.

Open slits can be sewn together after the weaving is finished and taken off the loom. Or, the weft threads of two colors along the slit can be interlocked while weaving. An alternative is dovetail technique, where you weave two, three or four threads from the two different colors around a common warp thread. The Norwegian name for this is hakke teknikk (dovetail technique). When the wefts are beaten in, the vertical line appears “hakkete,” or jagged.

Dovetail joins were used in the Baldisholteppet and the Halberstadt tapestries where two areas of color met vertically. Dovetail technique went out of use in European tapestries generally, but have been used in Scandinavia up to modern times.

Tapestry weaving in Gobelin technique had its first popularity in Europe in the 1300s. France, Belgium, and the Netherlands were the leading countries. Large and costly commissions came from influential cities like Arras, Paris, and Tournai to the upper classes all over Europe. There were also weaving studios in monasteries. The weavers were men who stood in lines in front of tall, upright Gobelin tapestry looms (haute-lisse) and wove. A large tapestry could take several years to complete. It was a close collaboration between the weavers and the painters who created the artistic cartoons, based on mutual respect. Tapestries were also woven on horizontal tapestry looms (basse lisse).

The Oldest Gobelin Find in Europe

This single find from the Baldishol church cannot in itself indicate that a living tradition for this type of weaving existed in Norway during the Romanesque period, but it is still fantastic that one of the Middle Age tapestries was preserved here.

The two other oldest preserved tapestries in Gobelin technique in Europe belonged to Saint Gerion church in Cologne and the cathedral in Halberstadt in Germany. The tapestry from Cologne was probably woven in the Rhine region in the 1000s. The motif is a reproduction of a Byzantine silk textile from the 800s or 900s, with an image of a mythical animal in a large circle. The tapestry from Halberstadt dates from the beginning of the 1100s. The ten meter long tapestry describes the history of Abraham and the Archangel Michael’s battle against the dragon. The style of image in the Halberstadt tapestry has ties to Romanesque period chalk paintings and painted icons.

Randi Nygaard Lium is a textile artist, author, and curator. Educated in Denmark, she has a degree in Art History from Aarhus University and studied weaving at Det Jyske Kunstakademi (Jutland Art Academy). She is the Senior Researcher at the Museum for Decorative Arts (Kunstindustrimuseet) in Trondheim, Norway. She was the Director of the Trondheim Art Museum (Kunstmuseum) from 1998-2011, and the Head Curator at the Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, 1986-88. She has written several books on textile art, including Tekstilkunst i Norge (2016) and Ny Norsk Billedvev – Et Gjennombrud (1992). Her work has been shown in many exhibits in Norway and other countries, including a solo exhibition at the Design Museum Denmark in Copenhagen (2006). Her work is represented in several museums and in commissioned work in public buildings.

Translated by Robbie LaFleur

Call for Art:The Baldishol Exhibit

2 Replies

The Baldishol: A Medieval Norwegian Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles

The exhibit: June 26-August 30, 2020
Norway House, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Opening Party: Friday, June 26, 2020, 5-8 pm

Most people aware of weaving traditions in Norway (or Europe) have seen an image of the famous Baldishol Tapestry. This tapestry textile fragment, depicting the months of April and May, was discovered in Norway in 1879 when a church was torn down. It is now recognized as one of the earliest European tapestries.

This Norwegian historical treasure has been replicated many times. The Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa, alone has three full-sized copies. A group of Norwegian-American women presented one to Mrs. Calvin Coolidge in 1926, in honor of the Norse-American Centennial celebrated the year before. Many students in Scandinavian weaving schools in past decades wove copies of the head of “April man.”

The head of “April Man,” unknown weaver. Tapestry owned by Carol Johnson, Minneapolis

Now it is your turn, as a contemporary artist, to be inspired by the Baldishol Tapestry.

We are looking for original weavings and other art works in fiber that look to the Baldishol Tapestry for inspiration, not replication, for a textile art exhibit at Norway House in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the summer of 2020. Sponsors include Norway House, the Weavers Guild of Minnesota, the Textile Center of Minnesota, and the Norwegian Textile Letter. The purpose of the exhibit is to highlight the talent and creativity of textile artists, internationally, while educating Norway House audiences about the famous Norwegian tapestry.

Examine the rich images of the April and May panels. Elements of the images could be woven, perhaps in multiples—birds? The dots of the horses? The designs of the bands? Could you weave cloth and make the tunic of one of the figures? Or make the shoes, or the helmet? Could you imagine the characters in a different time period, sowing seeds or going to war? If the Baldishol tapestry was only two months of a longer frieze, what would have happened on other panels? How are you inspired?

Prizes! Works in The Baldishol: A Medieval Norwegian Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles will be judged before the opening by Karen Searle, noted Minnesota artist, and Laurann Gilbertson, Curator of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum.

First Prize: $250
Second Prize: $100
People’s Choice (To be given following the exhibit): $50

Details and dates

This show will be curated by a group from Norway House and the Weavers Guild of Minnesota. To be included, you must submit an application. Art works, which must be original and executed by the artist, will be accepted into the show based on relevance to the theme as well as overall concept, design, and technique.

Applications will be taken from March 1-December 15, 2019, or until the exhibit space is filled. The piece does not need to be completed for approval of the concept. Applications will be processed within 6 weeks of receipt. Approved pieces should be delivered to Norway House between June 8-June 20, 2020.

The application form is here.

Cost: The application fee is $25, to help defray administrative costs (to be paid upon acceptance).

Sales: Items may be for sale, but transactions are the responsibility of the artist, not Norway House (due to is tax status). Details will be available in the acceptance letter.

An Exhibit Catalog will be published and available for purchase.

For inspiration, see these articles in the Norwegian Textile Letter: “Baldisholteppe: A Treasure from the Middle Ages;” “The Baldishol Tapestry in the White House,” which originally appeared in the Kulturhistorisk Leksikon (Cultural History Encyclopedia), published by Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane (the County Archives of Sogn and Fjordane); and “The Baldishol Tapestry–The White House Replica and Others.”

Questions? contact Robbie LaFleur at lafleur1801@me.com. The curatorial committee: Max Stevenson and Rachael Barnes from Norway House; and Claire Most, Sara Okern, Lisa Ann Bauch, Lisa Torvik, and Robbie LaFleur from the Weavers Guild of Minnesota.

Frida Hansen: Will We Ever See her Woven Swans and Maidens?

1 Reply

By Robbie LaFleur

Update (2022): It is found. See A Missing Frida Hansen Tapestry Rediscovered.

Fans of Frida Hansen and fans of mysteries–here’s a quest for you. Where is this missing Frida Hansen tapestry? We’re looking for your help.

Frida Hansen (1855–1931) was one of Norway’s most famous tapestry artists. She fit perfectly into the national romantic period at the end of the 19th century; she studied traditional weaving techniques and dyes. Her Art Nouveau style gained international acclaim; her most famous work, “Melkeveien,” (Milky Way), won a gold medal at the Paris Worlds Fair in 1900. As her style became more “European,” her popularity waned in Norway–in contrast, for example, to Gerhard Munthe’s popular tapestry images based on Norwegian folk tales.

Frida Hansen is overlooked no more. Especially after the retrospective of her work at the Stavanger Art Museum in 2015, she regained her place as an important figure in Norwegian art, and her innovation and excellence in weaving is fully recognized.

Most of Frida Hansen’s works were purchased outside Norway by museums and collectors. That brings us to our story of the missing swans and maidens. A few years after “Melkeveien,” she wove “Sørover,” or “Southward,” with ten maidens riding on swans. The pieces have a similar diagonal composition.

“Southward” was purchased off the loom in 1903 by Berthea Aske Bergh, who had studied with Frida Hansen. She brought it back to the United States, where it was exhibited several times up to 1931, at venues including the Walforf Astoria Hotel in New York (1904), the Smithsonian (1924), the Hotel Astor in Boston (1928), the Toledo Museum of Art (1931), and the Brooklyn Museum (1926, 1931). No color photos remain, but according to the cartoon and a description in House Beautiful in 1929, the main colors were blue, white, and silver, with a border of green and violet (“An Old Art for the New World,” by Miriam Ott Munson, House Beautiful, July 1929, p. 42+). From that article, here is the flowery description of Berthea Aske Bergh’s purchase of “Southward,” and also “King Sigurd’s Entrance into the Holy Port” (based on a cartoon by Gerhard Munthe, and woven by Frida Hansen):

Some years ago Mrs. Bergh made a statement to a group of American connoisseurs that her country not only possessed a highly developed art of weaving, but that it antedated by many centuries any similar European art. Her audience was skeptical and so, to prove her assertion, she sailed to Norway just one week from the date of the discussion to bring back to America convincing and beautiful proof of her statement.

Straight to Mrs. Hansen’s studio she went, where the magnificent tapestry “Southward” stood on the loom, nearing completion. To Mrs. Hansen she said, “I must have that tapestry to take back to America.”

Mrs. Hansen demurred, because practically all her tapestries are sold on the loom, and, true artist that she is, she does not duplicate work. But so insistent was Mrs. Bergh that Mrs. Hansen yielded to her entreaties, and ‘Southward’ was destined for America. So too was a duplicate of the tapestry “King Sigurd’s Entrance into the Holy Port,” since King Oskar II of Norway, who possessed the original, was unable to withstand Mrs. Bergh’s enthusiasm and entreaties.

King Sigurd tapestry

My interest in finding the missing ‘Southward” tapestry was sparked by two curators, Monica Obniski and Bobbye Tigerman, who are working on an upcoming exhibit, Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890-1980, which will open at the Milwaukee Museum in May 2020 and at the Los Angeles Museum of Art in October 2020. They are exploring the influence of Scandinavian design in America and the exchange of design ideas between the US and the Nordic countries throughout the 20th century. Monica Obniski wrote, “The textiles of Frida Hansen were shown in the United States (which is why we are interested in her work); her textiles also spurred interest in Norwegian weaving. We have tried to track down “Sørover,” which was owned by Berthea Aske Bergh; it was shown at an important 1931 show at the Brooklyn Museum, and it was prominently displayed at the Norse-American Centennial in Minneapolis in 1925.”

Southward was woven with wool and silver threads on a cotton warp and at approximately 114″ x 142″, it was impressively large. When it was shown at the Brooklyn Museum as part of an exhibition of Scandinavian Industrial Arts in 1926, Katrine Hvidt Bie wrote in Brooklyn Life and Activities of Long Island Society (Saturday, May 1, 1926):

“Southward” is of great beauty; as lovely as “The Milky Way” and “Salome’s Dance” or “The Finding of Moses.” It is a thing one will always remember, and love to dream about; the lithe and clean-limbed goddesses are speeding swiftly southward through the sea on the backs of young swans. They are carrying back the sun, and flowers which they loaned the North to make the long summer.

The second time it appeared at the Brooklyn Museum, as part of the “Modern Tapestries” exhibit (February 7-February 28, 1931), the press notice stated:

One of the most famous contemporary tapestry makers, Mme. Frieda Hansen of Christiana, Norway, is well represented by “Southward” and “Pond Lilies”, both of which were designed and woven by her. She became known as early as 1900 and now her works in this field hang in royal palaces in Norway, England, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Denmark and in three large museums. “Southward” is lent by Mrs. Berthe D. Aske Bergh of The Weavers, New York. This tapestry illustrates a Norse myth of golden-haired daughters of the sun who go sailing southward in diagonals across a geometric sea after having brought flowers and light to the north. It is woven in wool and silver.

On June 7, 1931, the New York Times carried an article about a new exhibit at the Homemaking Center at Grand Central Palace (“Arts and Crafts from Foreign Lands,” by Walter Storey Rendell, New York Times, June 7, 1931: SM9). The “Norwegian Exhibit” was shown courtesy of Berthea Aske Bergh, and featured tapestries by Frida Hansen from her collection. “One of her wall hangings on exhibition depicts the entry of King Sigurd into Byzantium, Istanbul of today, and another has a motif of pond lilies.” “Southward” is not mentioned, which is interesting, but not definitive. Could she have sold it during or after the Brooklyn Museum exhibit earlier that year?

What happened to “Southward” and the other pieces by Frida Hansen owned by Berthea Aske Bergh? Did she own them until the end of her life? Did her son inherit them? He died only five years after her. These are the details of their life spans, from Ancestry.com pages gleaned from a Google search.

Berthea Antonia Aske was born in Stavanger, Rogaland, Norway on October 18th, 1867. She married Oskar William Bergh, who died in 1937. She died on June 15, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York.

Bethea and Oskar had three children. One died the same year he was born, in 1893. Their son Norman Meriam Bergh was born in Duluth, Minnesota, on August 6, 1890. Norman married Elizabeth Lamson Griffin. He passed away on November 21, 1959, in Keene, New Hampshire, and his wife died in the same town in 1961.

Another son, John Nito Bergh, was born in 1895, but the Ancestry database does not have information on his death date, nor that of his wife, Ann Loretto Kinchsular.

I can picture the beautiful hand-dyed blue tones of the waves on “Southward,” set off by glistening silver threads. Odds are they will only remain in my imagination. I’ll continue my research, and try to find more information on Berthea Aske Bergh and her studio, The Weavers, Inc., when I visit New York City in February, 2019. Perhaps before then an alert Norwegian Textile Letter reader, or someone you know, will locate Frida Hansen’s missing masterpiece? Let’s crowdsource this conundrum.

Do you have information about Frida Hansen’s works in the U.S., or information about Berthe Aske Bergh and her weaving school in Brooklyn? Do you have ideas for further research? Please let me know at lafleur1801@me.com.

Looking for more information on Frida Hansen? Anniken Thue is the premier Hansen biographer. Her book, Frida Hansen: En Europeer i Norsk Tekstilkunst (A European in Norwegian Textile Art), published in 1986, is only in Norwegian. A more recent title, Frida Hansen: Art Nouveau i Full Blomst, published by the Stavanger Art Museum in 2015, includes several essays on Hansen’s art, with English translations. (Neither are easily available in the U.S.)

There are many references with images online. You could start with the website of the Stavanger Art Museum, here, with this overview on the the Norwegian Absolute Tapestry site (the overview of Norwegian tapestry puts Frida Hansen in context), and with two recent interesting blog posts: “Fabricadabra: Frida Hansen, 1855–1931” by Travis Boyer and “Frida Hansen and the Making of Art Nouveau.” I wrote about Hansen in “Now I Like Frida Hansen Even More,” and recently in “When Frida Hansen Sought a Weaving Teacher.” I will continue to write about Frida Hansen as I embark on a study of her work in Norway, with the support of the American Scandinavian Foundation. Robbie LaFleur

Women Weaving Women

Leave a reply

By Hilde Opedal Nordby
August 2018

Women Weaving Women (WWW) is a collection of home textiles that were handwoven on a TC2 digital loom in the spring of 2016. The collection is a contribution to the exhibit Future Traditions, a collaborative project between MOME (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design) in Budapest and the University of Southeast Norway (Universitatet i Sørøst-Norge) at Rauland. The collection focuses on representations of women in folk art and abstraction as a tool historically and today.

Future traditions, 2015-2019

From the exhibit Future Traditions at Skien Kunstbank, Norway. Photo: Marianna Brilliantova

From 2014-2017 I studied for my bachelors degree and masters degree in traditional art and textiles at the University of Southeast Norway campus at Rauland. During this period I participated in the collaborative project Future Traditions. The goal was to interpret traditional expressions of folk art from the two countries, Hungary and Norway, and to investigate how folk art and traditional patterns can find new life today, with a special focus on traditional handcrafts as a part of the work process. The exhibit consisted of the work of 21 students, with representation from several countries. The exhibit was shown in Budapest, Hungary; in Skien and Rauland in Norway; and in Bucharest, Romania. It will travel to Istanbul in Turkey in 2019. The exhibit includes works in textile, wood, metal, and mixed materials.

Women Who Weave Women

The collection WWW took its starting point with a popular motif in Norwegian billedvev (tapestry) from 1500-1900, the so-called “virgin tapestries.” The pattern is taken from an image of the five wise and five foolish virgins, one of the several biblical themes that were woven from images spread through church art and illustrated pamphlets. In a rural society where people usually could not read or write, these pamphlets and coverlets had a strong narrative and instructive function. The coverlets were often woven for a woman’s marriage and represented the important shift from youth to adulthood, from virgin to mother.

An older tapestry from Gudbrandsdal, before 1700, illustrating the story of the five wise and five foolish virgins. Photo: https://digitaltmuseum.no/021067335049/billedteppe

Illustration 3. A newer tapestry from Gudbrandsdal, around 1800, shows a more abstract and independent composition. https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023161804/teppe

My work with the motif sprang from my interest in weaving and for how the female figure has been represented in folk art, with a special interest in how women represent themselves in the woven coverlets and thinking about how we represent ourselves today. During the 1900s weaving was an obvious way for a woman to express herself, and it has gradually become recognized as a form of artistic expression. Coverlets woven before 1900 were primarily woven as functional items for the household, but they can also be seen as an expression of a woman’s life. Even though craft has been seen as the basis for mens’ worklife for hundreds of years, textile handwork in the home has always been the women’s arena. WWW is my representation of women today, who are independent and strong, but at the same time in need of community and something that is larger than ourselves.

Abstraction in Folk Art

A book that has been inspirational is Professor Mikkel Tin’s De Første Formene (The First Forms), which describes how geometric, abstract forms like the circle, cross, zig-zag, and rhombus are universal forms that form the basis of folk art around the world. This phenomenological approach that implies that people have an inherent expression that springs from folk arts’ self-taught, spontaneous practitioners, which again can be seen as an expression of their environment and world views.

An interesting feature with the virgin tapestries is how the oldest preserved weavings from around 1600 have a richness of detail that tells the whole story of the wise and foolish virgins. The earliest tapestries, which technically resembled German or Dutch tapestries, were likely woven by men who had established studios. Through the 1700s and 1800s when it became common to weave figurative coverlets also in the countryside, the motifs changed and interesting compositions developed, in which the story of the virgins disappeared and the women in the tapestries stood as staunch women ringed by geometric decoration and natural forms. The religious story disappeared and was replaced by what I interpret as a collective world understanding—women as a part of something larger, with strength and knowledge from one another. The tapestries show a strong understanding and knowledge of form, color and composition. The representation is lively and individual, with strong roots to common patterns.

Working with the TC2–Weaving and Drafting

The TC2 digital loom. Photo: Hilde Opedal Nordby

WWW also involved research into working with a digital loom of the TC2 type, developed by Tronderud Engineering and a part of Digital Weaving Norway. The loom can raise each warp thread individually, opening new design possibilities. The loom works on the same principles as a Jacquard loom and is a link between handweaving and industrial processes. The advantages of a digital loom are the possibilities of expressions and integrating many weave structures. The drawback is that working a great deal on the computer distances the weaver from the weaving itself, and with digital weaving it becomes easy to think like a machine–to become consumed with perfection and a result that looks just like the one on the computer. Digital weaving takes away the spontaneity of handwork. It takes longer to weave than on a floor loom because the machine requires time to pull up each of the threads, which gives a different rhythm and flow than working on a floor loom.

Abstract women underway. Photo: Hilde Opedal Nordby

The collection WWW consists of five long (.7 x 4 meters) wall pieces woven in eight-shaft satin weave where the warp and weft intersections are used to create light and dark sections. The pieces were woven in red, green, blue, gold and white, all on black warp. The colors were inspired by those in the virgin tapestries. The motif was created in Illustrator and later combined using the same program. The weave structure was drawn in Photoshop and laid over the various areas of color in the composition. For each weft shot, the digital loom reads the pixels in the row to decide which threads should be raised. It is a challenge to combine different weave structures; it is necessary to weave many samples or have deep experience with combining weave structures to get a good result. Irregular shapes can give fuzzy lines between changes in the weave structures, which I experienced in my work.

Setting up the exhibit in Bucharest, Romania. Photo: Bodil Akselvoll

Sampling of the weave structure, materials and colors. Photo: Hilde Opedal Nordby

Sampling. Photo: Hilde Opedal Nordby

Why I’m a Weaver

Work with the collection and with the virgin tapestries has given me insight into the enormous amount of work that went into weaving the tapestries, the knowledge and skills of the weavers, and the communities in which they lived and wove. The conditions of our society and creative lives are completely different than when the original tapestries were woven, but that doesn’t stop us from being inspired by them. They spark our interest in their motifs, colors, and techniques–reasons they become only more intriguing. They give us riches today that we can build on. I think that as long as we continue to weave and work with handcrafts, our knowledge and possibilities to understand the tapestries from within will live on.

Hilde Opedal Nordby is a Norwegian textile artist, working with traditonal weaving techniques, as well as contemporary and digital weaving. She is based in a small village called Stokke, where she does custom made projects and teaches weaving around the country. She is educated in traditonal arts and crafts from the University of South-East Norway.

Krokbragd Tapestry

Leave a reply

“Playa: Impossible Sky,” 2016

By Judy Ness
August 2018

Editor’s note: This year’s Best of Show weaving in the 2018 National Norwegian-American Folk Art Exhibition was Judy Ann Ness’s “Playa: Impossible Sky,” an intriguing combination of krokbragd and tapestry techniques. She won Best of Show for “Playa: Summer Lake, 2014” in 2015. (Read more here.) Now seemed a good time to ask her more about she combines techniques in her signature style.

Why, oh why, would one want to do this technique? I do not know. It began to develop in 1996 during graduate school in textile arts/weaving at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. The interest in Norwegian textiles began much earlier, probably 1968 or so, when I saw a pair of a Norske immigrant’s giant white mittens knitted and felted displayed at Vesterheim during Nordic Fest. I was a local kid from Lake Mills, Iowa, just northwest of Decorah. You never know when something will spark, take hold and stay, lurking for years until it surfaces with meaning and intent.

Let’s look at the details using krokbragd and tapestry techniques.

KROKBRAGD

Krokbragd lozenges

Traditional krokbragd is mostly woven as small interlocking patterns of almost infinite possibility. It has some constraints being a bound rosepath: 3 lifts repeated over and over again: 1-2, 2-3, 1-3. Using the same color on the same lift repeatedly produces a pattern of three vertical, solid color bars. The magic comes when the colors are changed. The treadling goes forth without variation, and the pattern is varied simply by the choice of color change. I’m particularly fond of making lozenges with a lacey black outline. Be assured, at some point in exploring the basic krokbragd, a weaver will start to see and understand what color changes will create a specific pattern.

TAPESTRY

Tapestry is two-shed plain weave warp: 1 and 2 on a vertical loom. If using a horizontal loom in a straight draft, the lift would be as for tabby: 1-3, 2-4. It’s plain weave with two lifts. The business of how the weft is woven is the substance of the tapestry technique. We won’t go into this here except to say the weft weaving controls the imagery.

A COMPARISION & A SOLUTION

Krokbragd pattern is loom controlled and tapestry is outrageously free of control. To combine them is interesting and time consuming. After years of trying to find an elegant solution to the interlock portion of tapestry on two lifts marrying with the loom controlled three-lift action of krokbragd, I failed. Absolutely. The more complex method was replaced by reverting to a simple clasped weft technique. (Reference: Peter Collingwood’s excellent The Techniques of Rug Weaving.) The solution was to use the krokbragd treadling with the clasped weft technique. It offered a choice of tapestry or allowing the krokbragd patterning to emerge.

Melding these techniques created a chimera, a beast of two different parentages that combine making something new. As you will see, the early work expressed krokbragd more distinctly with later efforts merging both the krokbragd and tapestry personalities. Curves, depth, and imagery become more possible to achieve.

“Midnight Sun,” 1998

“To the Ghosts Who Sleep in the Land Childhood Lost,” 1998 (in the collection of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum)

“Resolution,” 2000. (In the collection of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum)

“Playa Summer Lake,” 2014

“Playa: Impossible Sky,” 2016

Judy Ness is a tapestry weaver from Oregon with special interests in Norwegian and Navajo weaving. She has shared her knowledge and love of textiles as an instructor in weaving, spinning, and dyeing since 1995.

Dipping Into Carol Johnson’s Tapestry Collection

Leave a reply

Carol Johnson has over 60 tapestries in her collection–some Swedish, some Norwegian, and a handful of Scandinavian-inspired American ones. Most are modest in size. Many of them were woven by novices, probably by women learning tapestry techniques during a resurgence of textile interest in the 1950s-1970s. One piece is undisputedly a learner piece…

…Because here’s the Swedish book with the pattern! Flamskvävnad: Flemish Weaving, by Ernst Fischer and Gertrud Ingers (Västeros: ICA Förlaget, 1961).

Pieces in the collection represent many popular traditional images. She has two small tapestries of a man and woman surrounded by a floral border. It’s a segment of a well-known Swedish tapestry cushion pattern, “The Engagement.”

The pattern for this weaving is found in Flemish Weaving: A Guide to Tapestry Technique, by Gertrude Ingers (NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1971, originally published in Swedish, 1967). It is a portion of a image that was popular during the height of Swedish flamsk weaving in southern Sweden, from around 1750-1850.

Flamsk means Flemish, meaning a type of tapestry based on continental styles. In Sweden the weaving techniques and the images were simplified and, similar to Norwegian billedvev (tapestry), used dovetail techniques to avoid slits.

Woven in southern Sweden, owned by the Kulturen Museum in Lund.

Vivecke Hansen, a Swedish author and expert on flamskväv and other Scanian weaving techniques, posted a photo of a cushion with a more elaborate background, woven in the 1800s. (“Historical Reproductions–18th and 19th Century Dove-Tail Tapestry.” Textilis, No. XXXIX, May 22, 2015)

Sometimes scanning images in the Swedish DigitaltMuseum turns up patterns similar to those in Carol’s collection. This relatively modern flamsk weaving was dated 1960-1980. It is a common floral pattern with a bouquet of flowers flanked by two parrots, surrounded by a wreath, on a background of flowers.

In Carol’s tapestry, which may be older, guessing from the condition, the red urn switches to one festively adorned with zigzags. So many of the individual pattern elements are the same shapes in both tapestries, but vary in execution. For example, look at how the parrots were woven in the two pieces.

Another popular Swedish flamsk pattern is the red lion surrounded by a laurel wreath and on a background of flowers. Over 70 tapestries with the lion image still exist from the historical 1750-1850 time period. Here is the example owned by Carol, woven in the 20th century.

Carol’s collection of weaving in tapestry techniques includes several pieces in square weave, with designs built geometrically. Swedish pieces, called rölakan, use a double-interlock technique. This photo shows the back of a rölakan with the characteristic rows of raised edges where the colors join and interlock. This photo also show how older pieces can be quite faded on the front, with the richest colors–sadly–evident only on the back.

Carol’s collection includes two rölakan versions of the Swedish Bäckahäst, the river or sea horse, another popular Swedish tapestry image. This mythological creature was thought to lure people to ride on their backs and then plunge into the river. Although I thought this was a dragon-like creature spouting fire, I have seen a few references to a lily in the mouth of the horse.

Another find from the Swedish Digitalt Museum was this hand-colored photograph of a historical textile with similarities to one in Carol’s collection. It is part of a collection of 120,000 photographs by Lilli Zickerman, posted by the Svenska Hemslöjdsförening (The Swedish Handcraft Association). Lilli Zickerman undertook a massive inventory of Swedish folk textiles between 1910-1932.

This piece in Carol’s collection reproduces many of the abstracted flowers of the larger historical piece. In the center of both pieces, note the modern-looking abstracted lilies of the valley.

This Swedish rölakan, woven at a fine sett with thin yarn, features birds and stars.

Here is a Norwegian piece at a larger scale. In Norway the geometric tapestry technique is called rutevev.

Although double-interlock square-weave pieces are found in Norway, single interlock is more usual. With that technique, once the loose threads are woven in, the back is as beautiful as the front, and the weaving is reversible. We would guess this is a Norwegian rutevev because the back is as lovely as the front, but there is also a label.

Traditionally, larger Norwegian square-weave pieces were woven with thicker yarn at a wider sett than Swedish square-weave tapestries, probably because they were woven as utilitarian coverlets. In Sweden the square-weave technique was more commonly used for decorative textiles, with more complex patterns in finer threads.

The next two single interlock rutevev hangings are likely from patterns by noted Norwegian designer Else Poulsson, who worked in a variety of textile techniques. Poulsson was the head of Den Norske Husflidsforening (the National Handcraft Association) for 25 years, beginning in 1929. While her abstracted patterns were sometimes compared to spare patterns of German Bauhaus designs, her images focused on Norwegian culture; rural people in traditional costumes were frequent subjects.

A similar horse and rider design is found in an entry about Else Poulsson in the Store Norske Leksikon (Large Norwegian Encyclopedia).

Carol Johnson’s collection includes the head of a figure in the famous Norwegian Baldishol Tapestry, the most spectacular historical Norwegian tapestry, dated from the mid-1100s. It is woven in billedvev (literally, picture-weaving), the Norwegian tapestry technique that employs decorative joins and avoids long slits. Norwegian billedvev is also characterized by areas of solid color with little hatching.

It’s one of the few pieces in the collection with initials and the date of completion on the back, “S.H. 14/7 1966.”

A cartoon for this weaving is included on the Swedish Digital Museum site, from the collection of Vänersborgs museum. (Full record here. The record says it is from Johanna Brunssons Vävskola (a weaving school).

Clearly this cartoon has been woven many times. Ulrikka Mokdad from Copenhagen wrote, “Baldisholmanden – I remember 26 years ago when I was taking classes at The Weavers’ Guild, we would choose between several details from the Baldishol tapestries at the end of course one. I chose the face of the April man .” Another Danish Facebook reader wrote that she had inherited the same piece from her great-aunt, and assumed it had been a weaving school assignment.

If you were hunting for the most iconic image of medieval Norwegian billedvev, you would have to find an image of the wise and foolish virgins. As expected, Carol has one–this weaver only wove the five wise ones.

In the early 1900s the Handcraft Associations in Norway (Husfliden) and Sweden (Hemslöjden), in an attempt to revive traditional handcrafts, sold weaving patterns based on historical pieces. This billedvev piece in Carol’s collection was likely from a pattern from Husfliden in Norway.

This image is from a medieval cushion cover is in a set of books by Henrik Grosch.

Carol Johnson’s tapestries are tantalizing puzzles. They came with little background–perhaps they were sold off from a relative’s stash or were flea market finds for the sellers. They are woven with care in a time-consuming process. Who made them? Where did they get the patterns? When did they fade from fashion or lose meaning for the weaver or her family? As the title states, this article only dips into Carol Johnson’t tapestry treasures.

Fans of Scandinavian tapestry can look forward to an exhibit of Carol Johnson’s collection at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota in early 2019. Here is a GALLERY of many of the pieces. If you have knowledge of the designers or other background about them, let me know.

Robbie LaFleur
lafleur1801@me.com

Virgin Tapestries and the Bridal Theme

1 Reply

By Randi Nygaard Lium

Editor’s note: The most-woven motif at the peak of medieval Norwegian tapestry weaving was the biblical story of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. The two rows of virgins with a highly patterned background are emblematic of Norwegian billedvev (literally, picture-weaving) and recognized by museum-goers worldwide, like this version owned by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA). Why did this image resonate with weavers of the era? We are grateful for permission to present this translation of Art Historian Randi Nygaard Lium’s expert analysis, which appeared in her new book, Tekstilkunst i Norge (Textile Art in Norway).

The most popular Norwegian medieval tapestry motif is, as earlier mentioned, the Five Wise and Five Foolish Virgins. The fundamental basis of the image is a representation of virgins who went out to meet the bridegroom. The background text is from Matthew, Chapter 25, Verses 1-13.

1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 “Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. 3 “For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. 5 “Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. 6 “But at midnight * there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 “Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. 8 “The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 “But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ 10 “And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. 11 “Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’ 12 “But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ 13 “Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour. (These verses in English are from the New American Standard Bible.)

The motif was used in European visual art in the Middle Ages. When it became popular in Norway, the image spread through prints. In all the tapestries the virgins are woven in two horizontal lines, with the wise virgins uppermost and the foolish virgins below. The wise virgins proudly hold up their lamps. The foolish virgins hold handkerchiefs to dry their tears; their situations were difficult. They couldn’t have known beforehand how much time it would take for the bridegroom to arrive. This image shows the high demands made of young women. To be pure and innocent when the bridegroom arrived was not enough; they also needed to be alert and vigilant.

Along with the ten women in long dresses, men are woven in as side characters. It is interesting that the bridegroom is Jesus. In several tapestries the oil seller is placed in the lower right hand corner, and one tapestry even has the inscription “eros kiøbe” (eros purchase). This male figure has associations to something completely apart from virginity and purity. It is as if to purchase extra oil could be interpreted as having to do with prostitution. Therefore there are many layers of meaning to this theme. The tapestries were used as bedcovers, and as a beautiful covering for the marriage bed it was a reminder of moral demands.

In the oldest virgin tapestries from around the middle of the 1600s, the women are dressed in festive renaissance dresses, jackets with a high waist, and pleated collars. They often have crowns, and the long dresses are richly detailed, with a center section that resembles an apron. Behind the upper women you see architecture that looks like a city. The women are woven in two horizontal rows, one over the other, with a border between.

In the tapestries from the 1700s you see stylization and abstraction, which results in figures that are increasingly ornamental in their expression. The skirts, upper parts of their clothing, faces, and crowns create an ornamental whole. The inscriptions disappear, as well as the extra figures. The architecture behind the row of wise virgins is gone, replaced by decorative elements. The virgins’ lamps and handkerchiefs have disappeared, and with them much of the meaningful symbols of the story. Perhaps the message was forgotten over time, and when weaving a bridal coverlet the weaver perhaps followed a pattern she inherited.

Three original coverlets from 1760 from Bøverdalen have been preserved. The weaver was called the “bibelsprengte” weaver (the weaver who broke with the Bible), because she interpreted the motifs in her own style. Her unique tapestries included her rococo tapestry, Kristi forfedre (“Christ’s Ancestors”), and three identical Five Wise and Five Foolish Virgins tapestries, which included a whole row of accompanying figures. The three virgin tapestries were gifts for three sisters.

1760, Bøverdalen in Gudbrandsdal. Nordenfjelske Kunstindustrimuseum. Photo: Dino Makridis

Above the upper virgins is a whole new row depicting from the left: Joseph, Mary and the Christ Child, and the three Wise Men. On the right is Jesus, the heavenly bridegroom. Beside the virgins Jacob stands to the right in the upper row, and Joseph to the right in the lower row. The names of Jacob and Joseph are woven in.

This is an innovation of the virgin motif. The three tapestries from Bøverdalen aren’t rigid in the same manner as the other 1700s coverlets. Now the figures are freer and more lively, and they are clothed in elegant rococo clothing. “Christ’s Ancestors” is quite special, with many elegant men placed in diagonal rows up the tapestry. They wear a rococo costume with a long, narrow jacket in brocade, knee pants, and knitted stockings. The women have beautiful dresses—narrow in the middle, with a skirt bustling over a form. The weaver was well-acquainted with fashion of the day. In “Christ’s Ancestors” we find a rhythm and liveliness that is new in tapestries from Gudbrandsdal. Rococo playfulness and feminine elegance have made their marks?

Tapestries with the virgin motif were woven in the western part of the country, too, but were not as common as in the valleys of eastern Norway. The western virgin tapestries also had a unique expression, and were seldom the main motif of the tapestry. Virgins were often placed in the center of the tapestry, surrounded by borders and ornamental designs. The virgin motif was persistent in the area, and was woven all the way to the beginning of the 1800s.

A west coast virgin tapestry from the collection of the Norsk Folkemuseum. https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023130651/teppe

Virgin tapestries from Valdres and Trøndelag have been preserved, too. They echo the Gudbrandsdal tapestries, which shows that work from that area was an inspiration for weavers in both Valdres and Trøndelag. Many fine tapestry pillows from the 1700s are also found in Oppdal (in Sør-Trøndelag).

The virgin tapestries were used as wedding coverlets, and their symbolism signals moral expectations of the bride. That was indisputable and universally known. But it is less known that during that time marriage between a man and a woman was also a symbol of a woman’s bridal relationship to Christ, a marriage with spiritual meaning.

A young, god-fearing woman could enter into a spiritual marriage with Christ, dedicate her life to religion. In this way the purpose of marriage was both earthly and spiritual. Therefore Jesus was the heavenly bridegroom—and woven into the coverlets. The coverlets were religious beyond having just a moral point: they symbolized Christian purity and faith.

Marriage was holy and formed the basis of the church’s moral requirements. Among other things, there were rules about when a couple could make love. The rules were strict and difficult to abide by, resulting in guilt. The couple were not supposed to have sex on weekends or during holidays, or during pregnancy. The function of sexuality was procreation and furthering your family, not unfettered intimate relations; that was sinful.

At that time there was often a close relationship between individuals and the parish minister. The worship service was a time away from work and an occasion that helped support people in holding themselves faithful to God. The minister had a double function. From the pulpit on Sundays he was an authority who admonished those who listened about a Christian life without sin, and at the same time he was a spiritual provider from whom people sought guidance in difficult times. Perhaps it was also the minister a woman might visit to seek consolation when relations with her husband had been too lively or moving toward the forbidden. The guilt was difficult to bear alone, and her husband may not have been the easiest one to confide in under those circumstances.

Young women also had the opportunity to write a letter to the minister, called a “virgin letter.” However it wasn’t only unmarried women who confided in a minister; in Iceland a written confession is preserved from a young married woman who felt guilty because, according to church rules, she had an overly active sex life with her husband. The minister learned the most intimate details of the couple’s relationship in this confession.

Through his presence a minister was a sort of psychologist of that time. He gave penance and forgiveness for sins, and that helped women with issues they struggled with alone.

When we examine the many preserved coverlets with the virgin motif, we come to understand their meaning is about more than just the requirement to be a virgin when entering marriage. It encompasses also a holy marriage that required one to lead a religious life.

A Wise and Foolish Virgins tapestry owned by the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. http://collections.vesterheim.org/items/show/561

Randi Nygaard Lium is a textile artist, author, and curator. Educated in Denmark, she has a degree in Art History from Aarhus University and studied weaving at Det Jyske Kunstakademi (Jutland Art Academy). She is the Senior Researcher at the Museum for Decorative Arts (Kunstindustrimuseet) in Trondheim, Norway. She was the Director of the Trondheim Art Museum (Kunstmuseum) from 1998-2011, and the Head Curator at the Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, 1986-88. She has written several books on textile art, including Tekstilkunst i Norge (2016 and Ny Norsk Billedvev – Et Gjennombrud (1992). Her work has been shown in many exhibits in Norway and other countries, including a solo exhibition at the Design Museum Denmark in Copenhagen (2006). Her work is represented in several museums and in commissioned work in public buildings.

Book excerpt translated by Robbie LaFleur, who constantly runs into more depictions of the Wise and Foolish Virgins.

The annual notice: Help keep the newsletter free to readers around the world and show your support. Any amount, now and each year, is appreciated. Thank you!

A Synopsis of the History of Norwegian Tapestry – and Some Thoughts about Tapestry Today

Leave a reply

Editor’s note: The text of this article, by noted artist Unn Sønju, first appeared in a special issue of the Norwegian magazine, Lokalhistorisk magasin (Local History Magazine). The special double issue, 1-2, 2016, was devoted to articles on the theme of “Kunst og Husflid” (“Art and Handcraft”).

By Unn Sønju

Any weave is the interaction between the masculine warp and the feminine weft that create a cross, an ancient symbol for creation. Tapestry is one of the oldest art forms know to man. Unlike other two-dimensional art forms it has the unique property of having the image on both sides of the material. Only the simplest tools are required to weave on short or long lengths of warp.

The Oseberg tapestry fragments

Norway is fortunate in having tapestries from different periods in its history. Through these we can learn a great deal of social and art history, and last but not least, women’s history. The oldest pictorial weaves were found in the Oseberg Viking ship, buried around 850 and excavated in 1904, near Tønsberg in Vestfold. About this find, Bjørn Hougen wrote in 1940, “Tapestry and woodcarving, in these two words lies the starting point for an entirely new perspective that the Oseberg ship has given to the art history of the Viking Age.”

Oseberg fragment, Universitets Oldsaksamling, Oslo

From the first, the woodcarvings were treated with great respect, while the tapestry fragments received shamefully poor treatment. The tapestry fragments were in poor condition, appearing almost black and encased in clay and feathers, pressed together into lumps. During restoration it appeared that they were between 16 and 32 centimetres in height and thought to have been hung as long strips.

As early as 1916 four volumes of all the Oseberg finds were planned. Three volumes of all the finds, excluding the textiles, came in quick succession; the fourth on textiles took nearly 100 years before it was published in 2006. However in 1992, The Oseberg Queen’s Grave: Our national Treasure in a New Light (Osebergdronningens grav-vår nasjonal skatt i nytt lys) was published. Anne Stina Ingstad wrote that the textiles found in the burial chamber of the Oseberg ship are “without comparison in Nordic pre-history.” She points out that the tapestry fragments are by far the most important examples of the collection. With such a history isn’t it strange that these tapestries have been so overlooked and exhibited so infrequently?

Baldisol Tapestry

Baldishol Tapestry. Image from Wikipedia: https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldisholteppet

The next outstanding work is the Baldisol tapestry from circa 1200. After the demolition of the Baldisol church in 1887 an auction of the contents of the old church was held. An observant woman bought a dirty roll of textiles that she soon found were something extraordinarily special. With utmost care she washed the textiles, revealing images of two calendar months: May representing a man in a long smock sowing seed, and April as a young warrior in full armour riding a virile stallion. Both are depicted in an archway with a decorative background of birds and spots. The tapestry is torn at either end, indicating it could be part of a larger work, perhaps the whole calendar year. In all likelihood it was a long frieze, a beautiful tapestry in the Romanesque style. What is it that is so amazingly enchanting about the Baldisol tapestry? Its strength and clarity of colour and the total wholeness of its drawing and composition gives us a compelling image. With some knowledge of Romanesque art we can imagine how the other months might have been depicted. If we imagine a tapestry of twelve months length it may have been woven for Hamar Cathedral that was completed around 1200.

The Middle Ages

“Adoration of the Magi,” signed M.I.D & A.H.D, Gudbrandsdal

Between the Baldisol tapestry and 1550 there exists no evidence of Norwegian tapestries. This was a period of great hardship with 60% of the population dying of the plague, resulting in the collapse of society.

It was in the Middle Ages that many of Europe’s finest tapestries were created. Only long after this great interest for tapestry had reached is zenith there, did it eventually come to Norway, where the golden age of tapestry occurred between 1550 and 1850.

Norway had neither a tradition nor interest for painting and sculpture as in other countries in Europe, but tapestry flowered! Interest and knowledge of tapestry came first to the coastal towns and gradually spread to the rest of the country. In the eastern districts around Kristiania (now Oslo) figurative motifs were common, many from bible stories. On the west coast of Norway tapestry developed abstract and geometric imagery, while north from Trondheim ‘rya’, a tufted weave, was common that was well suited for bedspreads at home and on their fishing vessels. The Sami people had their own ‘grenvev’, literally ‘branch weave’ or weaving over a tree branch, making dynamic striped black and white tapestries.

Because Norway was a poor land that had neither a royal court nor aristocracy, women were given the opportunity to weave in small workshops. In the great tapestry workshops in Europe women were not invited to weave but could spin, tie loose threads and sweep the floors. In Norway it was an opposite situation. It was women who were the weavers, which led to a charming difference as their tapestries became more and more removed from their original prototypes. These female weavers created tapestries where women were the central motif, often derived from biblical sources.

An abstracted version of the Wise and Foolish Virgins woven by an unknown woman in Western Norway between 1750 and 1800. http://samling.nasjonalmuseet.no/no/object/OK-17392

New Flowering for Norwegian Tapestry

After 1850 tapestries were seen as being old fashioned and uninteresting as painting and sculpture became the leading art forms. At the end of the century there was a growing interest in Norwegian nationalism and folk culture renewing interest in the old tapestries. These tapestries were exhibited in museums and galleries at home and abroad and this encouraged a new interest in weaving and tapestry. Weavers who previously were anonymous were now known by their own name and were recognised in society as artists. Frida Hansen was the first who received international recognition, followed by Hannah Ryggen, Synnøve Anker Aurdal, Jan Groth and an increasing number of tapestry artists since the 1970s.

Hannah Ryggen. “Vi Lever på en Stjerne.” (“We Live on a Star”)

Today there are a large number of artists who have chosen tapestry as their prime form of expression. Tapestry is a natural part of the Norwegian and international art scene that becomes continually broader in its scope of media and expression due to education and advances in technology. Today a tapestry can be totally realised from idea to finished product by the use of data programming. A fine example of this is the theatre curtain designed by Pae White in the Opera House in Oslo. Today tapestries are to be found in many public buildings the world over, as indeed are books, showing the work of outstanding tapestry artists. Large group and travelling exhibitions bring to the public the latest ideas and developments in tapestry art. In Norway in the 1960-70s tapestry was much sought after and now, in the past few years, there is renewed and exciting interest.

To renew an old craft is both a challenge and a responsibility. If tapestry no longer mirrors and reflects its contemporary society it soon loses any interest and quickly becomes neglected and indifferent. Tapestry, like all visual art, can be divided into three stages: idea, craft and form/presentation that must work together for a convincing totality. The idea is the springboard and energy, through craft and technique the idea becomes an object, and the form is the final presentation.

Thread on thread, patience and concentration, such is the artist’s wonder and experience in the creation of a tapestry.

Translation of the original article from Lokalhistorisk magasin was provided by the author, Unn Sønju.

Unn Sønju was born in 1938 in Oslo, Norway; she currently lives and works in Oslo and Flesberg, Norway. She was educated at Leeds College of Art, England (1957-59) and the Women’s Industrial School, Norway (1960-62). She was a lecturer in Experimental Textiles in the Department of Fine Art in Leeds from 1965-77, and Tapestry Professor at Oslo University College from 1999-2005. She has been featured in 32 solo exhibitions in Scandinavian and Great Britain, and participated in over 100 group exhibitions worldwide. 39 of her tapestries appear in public spaces.

Learn more about the author’s work in tapestry in another article in this issue:, “Influences in my Art: Reflections,” and at her website, unnsonju.com.

Thanks to Laurann Gilbertson, Curator at the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum, for information on the museum’s copies of the Baldishol Tapestry.

On the Technique of the Baldisholteppet

The Oldest Gobelin Find in Europe

Details and dates

Update (2022): It is found. See A Missing Frida Hansen Tapestry Rediscovered.

Do you have information about Frida Hansen’s works in the U.S., or information about Berthe Aske Bergh and her weaving school in Brooklyn? Do you have ideas for further research? Please let me know at lafleur1801@me.com.

Future traditions, 2015-2019

Women Who Weave Women

Abstraction in Folk Art

Working with the TC2–Weaving and Drafting

Why I’m a Weaver

KROKBRAGD

TAPESTRY

A COMPARISION & A SOLUTION

Judy Ness is a tapestry weaver from Oregon with special interests in Norwegian and Navajo weaving. She has shared her knowledge and love of textiles as an instructor in weaving, spinning, and dyeing since 1995.

Robbie LaFleur lafleur1801@me.com

By Unn Sønju

The Oseberg tapestry fragments

Baldisol Tapestry

The Middle Ages

New Flowering for Norwegian Tapestry

Translation of the original article from Lokalhistorisk magasin was provided by the author, Unn Sønju.

Learn more about the author’s work in tapestry in another article in this issue:, “Influences in my Art: Reflections,” and at her website, unnsonju.com.

Robbie LaFleur
lafleur1801@me.com