Gunnlaugur Scheving was one of Iceland’s leading figurative artists. He belonged to a movement which in the 1930s broke with the accepted tradition of landscape painting from the turn of the century and instead went on to develop a distinctive and individual pictorial idiom. He started exploring themes that included people in their working situations, fishermen at sea and imaginary figures in rural settings.
贡劳古尔-谢文是冰岛著名的具象艺术家。20世纪30年代，冰岛绘画打破了世纪之交以来公认的风景画传统，转而发展出独特的个体绘画风格，谢文便属于这样一个时代。他探索的主题包括工作环境中的人、海上渔民和农村环境中的想象人物。
Gunnlaugur’s paintings of fishermen and their lives immediately drew attention, and this would be one of his principal themes. In this huge painting, Hauling the Shark Aboard, the artist conveys a realistic image of Icelandic fishermen and their struggles with the forces of nature. We see only a part of their boat and are given an impression of its rocking on the waves. Powerful diagonals cut across the picture plane, and the painting has great dynamic energy. The fisherman who is the focus of the work is sober and reliable. The color palette evokes the weather and light. Numerous drafts and sketches for this ambitious work are extant and illustrate how the artist explored and developed his subject in the quest for a perfect composition.
贡劳古尔关于渔民和他们生活的画作迅速吸引了人们的注意，这也成为他主要的绘画主题之一。在这幅名为《把鲨鱼拖上船》的巨幅画作中，艺术家描绘了冰岛渔民与自然斗争的现实画面。虽然我们只看到了船的一部分，但它却给人一种在波涛中摇摆的感觉。有力的对角线贯穿了整个画面，带来巨大的动态效果。冷静可靠的渔夫是画作的焦点。调色板般的色彩反映了天气和光线。这幅雄心勃勃的作品现存有许多草稿与素描，展示了艺术家如何探索和发展绘画主题，并最终寻找到一个完美的构图。
In his paintings he sought to depict the unique and close relationship between man and nature in the life and work of Icelandic working people, on sea and on the land. Through simple formal structure and planes of color, Gunnlaugur’s works attain a symbolic significance, extrapolated from the individual to the general and universal. His pictures of rural life serve as symbols of olden days as exemplified in the poetry of the late 19th century, while his paintings of the seaman’s life reflect the changing times, with automation and industrialization of the fisheries sector. The large size of Schevings’s works, and the techniques he applies, have established a unique place for him in Icelandic art history.
在贡劳古尔的作品中，他试图描绘冰岛劳动人民在海上和陆地的生活和工作，展示人与自然间独特密切的关系。通过简单的形式结构和色彩平面，贡劳古尔的作品拥有了一种象征意义——从个体延伸到一般普遍性。他笔下的乡村画象征19世纪后期诗歌中的旧日，但他描绘的渔民生活却反映了随着渔业自动化和工业化而不断变化的时代。贡劳古尔-谢文作品的巨大尺寸，以及他使用的技巧，让他在冰岛艺术史上占有一席之地。
We present today's painting thanks to the National Gallery of Iceland. : )
感谢冰岛国家博物馆与我们分享今天的画作。:)
