Jonsson Museum Is Devoted: The gallery's upper Floor is devoted mainly to paintings done within the last hundred years, since this form of art is hardly older than that in Iceland. Landscape and seascape painting has been a chief goal of these modern artists, along with much portraiture. J6hannes Kjarval is the best known of them, followed by Jon Stefansson and Asgrimur Jonsson. All three are of this 20th century.
The Einar Jonsson Museum is devoted to the works of but one gifted artist, the man whose name it bears. He is still living, though over 80, and he has left a wealth of interesting works, all in Iceland, from his active years. He did the excellent Ingolfur Arnarson statue (gift of the U.S.) which stands conspicuously in a downtown park close to the office of the Iceland Tourist Bureau. Two other contemporary sculptors of much younger age warrant attention. One is Asmundur Sveinsson, some of whose striking works, not unlike those of Oslo's Gustav Vigeland, may be seen in the grounds of his home. The home itself looks like an astronomical observatory and if you drive about a bit you'll surely see it. The other sculptor is a sculptress, Gerdur Helgadottir, who has won notable success by devoting herself to abstractionist art.
On this island you will find the big and comprehensive Nordiska (Nordic) Museum, one of its countless features being a big statue of Gustav Vasa (opposite the entrance) by Carl Milles; Skansen Park, an outdoor museum of Sweden and a hill of popular restaurants and fun; Waldermarsudde (Waldemar's Point), once the home of the artist Prince Eugene, brother of King Gustav V, and now a museum of his collections and his own paintings; the Thiel Art Gallery (Thielska Galleriet) devoted in large part to the works of 20th-century painters and sculptors; Rosendal Palace, built by King Charles XIV John (Marshal Bernadotte, the first of that line, whose wife was Desiree), and now restored as a museum of his times; and a great area of lovely woods through which your car should roll slowly.
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