Norwegian-American Church Art

Norwegian-American Church Art Altar Paintings by Herbjørn Gausta Sarah Kirkeberg Raugland and Arne Berger

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Norwegian-American Church Art Altar Paintings by Herbjørn Gausta Sarah Kirkeberg Raugland and Arne Berger

A companion to the exhibit Norwegian-American Church Art with Roots in Northeast Iowa Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum Anna Hong Fine Arts Gallery June 8 - September 3, 2001

Lenders to the Exhibit

© 2001, Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, Decorah, Iowa. All rights reserved.

New Hope Lutheran Church Sand Creek, Wisconsin

Exhibit curated by Kristin M. Anderson, Associate Professor of Art, Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minnesota, with Carol Hasvold, Registrar and Librarian, Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, Decorah, Iowa.

Cross of Christ Lutheran Church Houston, Minnesota

Exhibit funded by a grant from Humanities Iowa, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Bethlehem Lutheran Church Grand Marais, Minnesota

Zion Lutheran Church International Falls, Minnesota

Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church New Glarus, Wisconsin

Exhibit arranged in conjunction with 2001: A Faith Odyssey, celebrating the sesquicentennial of the establishment of Norwegian-American Lutheran parishes in northeastern Iowa.

St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church St. Paul, Minnesota

Catalog text by Kristin M. Anderson.

St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church Cannon Falls, Minnesota

Catalog publication sponsored by Colleen Peterson, in memory of Roger Peterson, with additional gifts from Donald and Barbara Berg and Robert and Eunice Kolsrud.

Lyster Lutheran Church Nelson, Wisconsin Spring Valley Historical Society Spring Valley, Minnesota

Cover: Herbjørn Gausta, The Road to Emmaus (after Plockhorst), after 1896. Vesterheim NorwegianAmerican Museum collection. Original setting: Immanuel Lutheran Church, Jewell, Iowa.

Special thanks to Vinje Lutheran Church Willmar, Minnesota

Title page: St. Petri Church, Story City, Iowa, with altar painting by Herbjørn Gausta, 1912.

Back cover: Sarah Kirkeberg Raugland, Jesus and Peter on the Sea of Galilee, Cross of Christ Lutheran Church, Houston, Minnesota.

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Foreword

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study art. His education was funded by a number of the leading citizens of the Decorah area, including U. V. Koren. Gausta returned to the United States and, like Raugland, worked as a professional artist in Minneapolis.

Arne Berger was born in Norway, immigrating as a young man to Minneapolis. He spent the early years of his career working in various locations, including a four-year residence in Decorah from 1903 until 1907. Berger eventually returned to Minneapolis in 1917 where he lived for the next three decades.

Although their careers and connections to the northeastern Iowa area were varied, these three artists were part of the core of painters who supplied art to thousands of churches across the country.

This exhibit chronicles the tradition of these paintings, explores the lives of these three artists, and highlights representative examples of their work.

he year 2001 marks the sesquicentennial celebration of the establishment of the first Norwegian Lutheran parishes west of the Mississippi River. The original parishes, and many others established from them, were served from 1853 until 1910 by the Reverend Ulrik Vilhelm Koren (1826 –1910), a Norwegian immigrant pastor active in the Norwegian Synod and in the Decorah community.

As a part of the observance of this anniversary, Vesterheim is mounting an exhibit of altar paintings. Three of the artists who produced altar paintings for Norwegian-American Lutheran churches had connections to northeastern Iowa.

Sarah Kirkeberg Raugland was born near Elgin, Iowa, to immigrant parents. After spending some of her youth with family in North Dakota, she settled in Minneapolis, where she established her studio.

Herbjørn Gausta was born in Norway, but his family settled in Harmony, Minnesota, just north of the Iowa border. He attended Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and was soon sent to Europe to

Interior of Lyster Lutheran Church, Nelson, Wisconsin.

Sarah Kirkeberg Raugland, Crucifixion, c. 1889-1890.

Altar frame and chancel carvings by Ole Myren.

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Norwegian-American Church Art Kristin M. Anderson

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1922 article in the Lutheran Church Herald states that the Norwegian-American artist Herbjørn Gausta had “rendered our church a valuable service which should not fail of recognition.” Yet only a few paragraphs earlier, the same article asserted— probably quite accurately—that … but very few of the tens of thousands who every Sunday receive religious instruction from his masterly altar paintings know Gausta by name. Many of those who are impressed with the good taste and sincerity of his portraits know nothing about the careful training which accounts for his mastery of the art.

If recognition for Norwegian-American artists was uncertain in their own time, it became even more tenuous as time passed. Styles and tastes in church decoration have changed dramatically in the last century, and in many cases the work done by the Norwegian-American artists has been intentionally removed or has otherwise disappeared from sight. In recent years, however, there has been growing interest in these paintings’ value both as art objects and as important parts of the immigrant church’s historical record.

The altar painting was a common form of late nineteenth and early twentieth century church decoration in many American congregations of Norwegian background. Along with statues of Christ, these paintings were the primary form of ornamentation used above the altar in many sanctuaries.

This church art was not an invention of the immigrant community. Elaborate altars were common through the entire history of the Christian church. Further, many of the ethnic groups who settled in the upper midwestern states had strong traditions of decorated altars,

Sarah Kirkeberg Raugland, Resurrection (after Plockhorst), 1899.

Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

(Courtesy of Maxine Meyer.)

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remembered from the parish churches of their home countries. The immigrants brought with them the expectation of a sanctuary that would be beautified and set apart from the ordinary spaces of their lives; works of art, like the altar paintings and statues, helped to fulfill this desire.

The early worship spaces of newly established congregations were often the homes of members or borrowed spaces—like schools or stores—that had a primary function other than worship space. Special decoration was not usually placed in these multipleuse buildings. Typically, an altar painting would not be purchased until the congregation found its own permanent space. In some nineteenth century cases, paintings were not even purchased for the first church buildings; instead, they were installed when the congregation was able to afford larger and more costly space. By the early twentieth century, altar paintings were generally part of the standard original furnishings in new church construction.

The altar decoration in the immigrant church—either a painting or a statue—was usually surrounded with an elaborate altar frame. These frames could be purchased from a church supply business, although many were made locally by talented woodworkers. In either case, the altar’s decoration and its frame helped to draw the worshipper’s attention forward to the altar area.

A statue of Christ was one popular option for the niche of the decorated altar. The most common figures used were copies of ‘Come Unto Me,’ a statue by the Danish sculptor Bertil Thorvaldsen, made in the 1830s for the altar of Vor Frue church in Copenhagen. While nineteenth and twentieth century altar statues were usually based on this single model, the range of choice for altar paintings was much greater.

Jesus is the central figure in all of the altar paintings. The favorite subjects and themes included scenes from the passion of Christ, such as Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane and

the crucifixion. Resurrection and post-resurrection scenes were also favored, including a number of different images of the resurrection itself, as well as the stories of the road to Emmaus and the ascension. Other popular subjects included Jesus and Peter on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus knocking at the door, Jesus as the good shepherd, Jesus calling the disciples, and Jesus with the adulterous woman. At times, non-narrative images of Jesus were used, especially pictures showing Jesus blessing or welcoming the viewer. Regardless of the story or image shown, the paintings included a limited number of principal figures. This helped to make the internal scale of the paintings large, and the story could be read with ease by persons in all parts of the sanctuary.

There are a number of reasons for the popularity of the themes and subjects mentioned above. First, most represent an event from the life of Christ that is particularly dramatic or meaningful. Many of the episodes are illustrations of events that are central to the faith. Also, a number of the themes point to a particular characteristic of Jesus. Paintings that show parts of the narrative cycle of Christ’s life, such as the crucifixion or the resurrection, often reveal something about Jesus’ character, such as his faithfulness, courage, or obedience.

Other themes have less narrative content and are more image related. Examples of these are the good shepherd scenes, the pictures of Jesus knocking at the door, and the paintings that are like portrait images, some of which are twodimensional reinterpretations of Thorvaldsen’s famous statue.

A number of these altar paintings also show particular events where the interaction or presence of Jesus with an individual is stressed. Jesus saving Peter on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus meeting Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb, Jesus consoling the adulterous woman, and Jesus talking with his 7

disciples on the road to Emmaus are all examples of this. The Good Shepherd paintings and the pictures of Jesus knocking at the door are related to this theme, but the individual is implied, not shown.

A second reason for the popularity of these altar painting subjects relates to the format used.

That is, the shape of many of these events is vertical. This is especially apparent in the scenes in which Jesus is standing. It is emphasized further in other scenes that have a vertical thrust, as in the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension.

The Last Supper, a subject with both dramatic appeal and theological significance, was not popular with the Norwegian-American altar painters and their audiences, judging from the rare examples. It is possible that the horizontal format in which the image is generally conceived made it unsuitable for placement in the altar, even though it is perhaps one of the most suitable themes for an altar painting.

Thus, certain subjects and themes were particular favorites in the altar paintings. Beyond this, there were specific expressions of these events that were preferred. Very few of the NorwegianAmerican altar paintings were original works in the modern sense. The artists did not create new visions of the events shown. Instead, these immigrant artists copied their altar images from famous and popular paintings.

The original works preferred as models for the altar paintings were generally late nineteenth century pieces made by German or German-trained artists, and known to the Norwegian-American artists and viewers through reproductions in books, prints, postcards, and church publications. Copies of the same or similar works were often found in parish churches in Europe. These works were popular, in part, because of their content; the life of Jesus was their primary focus. In addition to the appealing subject matter, these works tended to show a particular view of Jesus favored at the

time. Jesus is generally depicted as a pleasantlooking and attractive figure. His expressions, gestures, and activities are comforting, accepting, and compassionate. The viewer is presented with a non-threatening Jesus who is neither judging nor forceful. Jesus’ humanity is stressed, and his divinity is expressed in terms of divine love rather than divine wrath.

The altar paintings came to the churches in a variety of ways. Sometimes the paintings were produced by local or itinerant artists, by pastors or congregation members, or by friends or relatives of persons in the congregation. In most cases, the art was ordered from professional artists or businesses specializing in altar painting production.

The professionals who made the altar paintings used in Norwegian-American churches were, almost without exception, artists from the same ethnic group. They reflected their community in many ways, not least in their origins. A number of the artists were born in Norway. Some, like Herbjørn Gausta and August Klagstad, came to the United States as children. Others, like Andreas Pedersen and Arne Berger, immigrated as adults.

Still others among the artist group were born in America to immigrant parents. Although she was one of the oldest of the painters, Sarah Kirkeberg Raugland was born in Iowa and spent her whole life in the United States.

The ties of the artists to the immigrant community were established by more than their births and origins. Many of them used Minneapolis as a base of operations for all or part of their careers. The city had a high concentration of Norwegian-American Lutherans—their principal clientele—and it was centrally located, which helped the artists as they shipped their work to congregations. These artists were also active in the cultural life of the ethnic community, especially through participation in exhibits in Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York.

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Much of the patronage these artists received also had a strong ethnic base. The majority of altar paintings done by the Norwegian-American artists were for Norwegian-American churches, and for their part, the churches tended to choose artists from their ethnic group. This pattern was also followed by the Swedes and the Danes, who patronized their own artists in a similar manner.

These artists sometimes advertised in the church press and in self-published catalogs. Their connections to the church were often specifically established along synodical lines. Gausta painted exclusively for the Norwegian Synod, Sarah Raugland worked for pastors and congregations of the United Church, Andreas Pedersen was the preferred painter of the Lutheran Free Church, and most of Arne Berger’s commissions came from the Hauge Synod or the Norwegian Synod.

Funds for the purchase of altar paintings generally came from special sources beyond a congregation’s operating budget, indicating that these objects were considered a luxury. At times, the paintings were acquired with donations from individuals or families. It was more common, however, for a church group like the Young People’s Society or the Ladies Aid to provide the funds for the painting. The cost of the paintings ranged from about $25 to well over $200. Prices varied by artist, and among the factors used in price determination were the size of the painting, the number of figures represented, and/or the reputation of the artist.

Over time, changes in the congregation’s situation, such as new or remodeled facilities, or mergers with other congregations, often meant that the painting no longer occupied its original setting. Some congregations moved paintings to other areas in the buildings when the sanctuaries were remodeled or rebuilt. In other cases, paintings that were not needed were sent to other churches or sites, where they were given a second life in a new congregation.

The artists and their church art were important to the immigrant community and church. In many ways they brought art and a sense of beauty to places and lives that were sometimes physically or emotionally remote from the benefits of culture. The altar paintings moved many viewers. The paintings beautified and enriched the worship spaces. They helped the immigrant churches remain in contact with their Norwegian church roots and with the traditions of Christian art in general. The paintings served to “strengthen the faith of many,” as one congregation history put it. One pastor summarized this view of the artists and their work in a poetic tribute to Sarah Raugland on her eighty-fifth birthday: Your gift as an artist was very well known, Your fine altar paintings will ever Help many remember you when you are gone And think of your worthy endeavor; Those biblical pictures continue to speak To worshipping congregations And thus through your paintings dear souls you will reach In this and in more generations…

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Herbjørn Gausta

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Herbjørn Gausta, undated photograph.

Gausta papers, Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum archive.

f the professional Norwegian-American artists who worked in Minneapolis, the most important was Herbjørn Gausta. He was born in 1854 in Telemark, Norway. His family left Norway for America in 1867 and made their new home in Harmony, Minnesota. In 1872, Gausta went to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, to prepare for a teaching career. He quickly demonstrated a greater aptitude for art than for education, and in the fall of 1875 he was sent to Europe for art study. His travel and education were funded by leading Decorah citizens, including U. V. Koren. Gausta spent the next few years studying art in Oslo and Munich.

After his return to America, he eventually settled in Minneapolis, where he painted landscapes, genre scenes, portraits, and altar paintings. Gausta was active in local art exhibitions, both within the ethnic community and in the city at large.

Gausta’s earliest altars were painted in 1889, and he continued to produce these pictures through his career. He painted about four hundred altar paintings. Gausta maintained strong personal and professional ties to the Norwegian Synod and its pastors, and his altar work was almost exclusively for that group. Even after the 1917 merger of the Norwegian Lutheran church bodies, his old Norwegian Synod connections remained strong.

Herbjørn Gausta’s talent and contributions to the quality of immigrant cultural and religious life have been recognized for many years. Marion Nelson, former Vesterheim executive director, called him “a painter of exceptional talent,” yet Gausta did not excel in the art world beyond the immigrant community. Some of the factors that kept him from achieving great success are related to his work in altar production. The NorwegianAmerican community had not been forthcoming in its support of Gausta’s original art works; he earned his living doing altar paintings and portraits that, by their nature, did not allow the artist opportunity for free and original expression. Gausta died in 1924.

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f a congregation wanted a resurrection scene for the altar, they had many options. In some cases, three women are shown encountering an angel at the empty tomb, as described in Mark 16:1-8. For the Norwegian-American viewers, the most popular expression of this was Axel Ender’s painting from Molde, Norway, which was copied by many of the immigrant altar artists. Another common set of scenes show Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18) or to the two Maries (Matthew 28:8-10). In Gausta’s record books, he often referred to these scenes as Paaske morgen or Easter morning.

In the two examples in this exhibit, Gausta has painted versions of the other alternative for resurrection imagery. He shows Jesus coming out of the tomb, with soldiers at the bottom and an angel at the side of the image. This scene is implied but not described in the biblical texts. The soldiers guarding the tomb (see Matthew 27:62-66) are present, as is an angel, who plays a crucial role in the announcement of the resurrection at the empty tomb. In Gausta’s notes, scenes of this type are called Opstanden (Resurrection) to distinguish them from the post-resurrection scenes described above.

The two resurrection paintings in the exhibit came from different stages in Gausta’s career. The earlier of the two was painted in 1890 for the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church of Spring Valley, Minnesota (later Trinity Lutheran Church), which had built a new church in 1889.

Congregational histories indicate that Gausta was paid $135 for the painting and that the funds may have been provided by the women’s group of the church. When Trinity’s building was razed, the painting was saved and stored in an attic. It was rediscovered a few years ago, and is now displayed at the Spring Valley Historical Museum.

The second resurrection scene was painted nearly twenty years later, in 1908, for Vinje

Herbjørn Gausta, Resurrection (after Plockhorst).

Photograph, Gausta papers, Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum archive.

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Lutheran Church of Willmar, Minnesota. A record of the transaction is noted in one of Gausta’s informal lists of painting orders. The Reverend John Anderson purchased this painting for Vinje’s new 1904 building at a cost of $150.

For these two images, Gausta copied a painting of the resurrection done by Bernhard Plockhorst in 1867 for the cathedral in Marienwerder, West Prussia (now Kwidzyn, Poland).

Gausta in his studio, with one of his copies of Schönherr’s Jesus in Gethsemane.

Photograph, Gausta papers, Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum archive.

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ictures of Jesus praying in Gethsemane were very popular in Norwegian-American altars. Two different views of the subject are included in the exhibit. One is a copy of an image by Karl Gottlob Schönherr, made for a German-Russian church in Cherson, and the other is a copy of the well-known 1890 Jesus in Gethsemane by Heinrich Hofmann (1824-1911).

Gausta’s copy of the Schönherr image was painted in 1898 for the Norwegian Synod congregation in Sand Creek, Wisconsin. Jesus kneels in a dark garden setting as an angel descends from the upper left corner of the composition and offers Jesus a chalice, a reference to Jesus’ prayer “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want,” (Matthew 26:39).

A group of sleeping disciples is placed in the middle ground under the angel. The outdoor setting and landscape details of the garden provided Gausta with the opportunity to incorporate both color and some relatively free brushstrokes; this treatment is seen in other altar paintings with outdoor settings, like the Emmaus paintings and Good Shepherd scenes.

The congregation that commissioned this painting merged with a Lutheran Free Church congregation in Sand Creek, and this painting was sold when the original church was razed. Like the altar painting from the Lutheran Free Church parish, however, this painting remained in the Sand Creek community. Both paintings have been restored and now hang in the narthex of the merged congregation, New Hope Lutheran Church.

Herbjørn Gausta, Jesus in Gethsemane (after Schönherr).

Photograph, Gausta papers, Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum archive.

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austa’s large painting of Jesus and his disciples on the road to Emmaus had been installed in Immanuel Lutheran Church of Jewell, Iowa, a Hauge Synod congregation founded in 1896. When the congregation was dissolved and the building sold to a congregation of another denomination, this painting was given to Vesterheim.

Gausta’s scene was based on a popular image

by Bernhard Plockhorst, and he credits his source with the inscription “efter Plockhorst.” The painting shows Jesus walking with two of his disciples as they travel to Emmaus on the day of the resurrection. According to the story in Luke 24, the disciples do not recognize Jesus on this trip, during which he talked with them about scripture.

With its three standing figures, this episode is typical of popular altar subjects because of its strong vertical orientation and limited number of participants. The very large format and lifesize figures of this painting create a particularly powerful image that is strong enough to function in a large room, yet contains sufficient detail to attract viewer interest at close range.

Herbjørn Gausta, The Road to Emmaus (after Plockhorst), after 1896.

Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum collection.

Original setting: Immanuel Lutheran Church, Jewell, Iowa.

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Sarah Kirkeberg Raugland

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arah Kirkeberg Raugland was born to Norwegian immigrant parents near Elgin, Iowa, in 1862. She went to high school in Elgin and in 1882 she went to North Dakota to live with one of her brothers. She stayed in North Dakota until 1885 or 1886, when she went to Minneapolis to study art. Her teacher is unknown, but it is likely that she studied with one of the Scandinavian immigrant artists in the city at that time.

Raugland was first listed in the Minneapolis City Directory in 1888, when she boarded at 1629 North Bryant Avenue. Her occupation listing was “artist,” a term that referred specifically to fine art production. She was married in May 1891 to Carl Raugland. The wedding took place in Elgin, Iowa.

Raugland and Kirkeberg had met in Minneapolis. He and his brother, Andreas, lived around the corner from Kirkeberg and her sister, Lena, in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in 1890. A native of Laurvik, Norway, Raugland was a recent immigrant, arriving in the United States in 1885 and in Minneapolis shortly before meeting his future wife.

Sarah Kirkeberg Raugland continued her career after her marriage, and until 1909, she maintained a separate listing from her husband in the city directories. At the time of the publication of her 1893 catalog, she had her studio in the Century Piano Company building, certainly because of the connection through her husband, a Century employee. Over the next decade, she ran her painting business out of her home, in rented studio space, or from her husband’s company.

Her professional image was created through illustrated advertisements in church publications like Lutheraneren and in professionally published catalogs. She remained in her home on Chicago Avenue until her husband’s death in 1918, at which point she moved into her daughter’s home and gave up altar painting work, evidently because of a lack of space.

Sarah Raugland, c. 1899.

Carl Martin Raugland papers (P1460, folder 4), Minnesota Historical Society.

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Raugland’s successful career as an altar painter began in the late 1880s. It is estimated that she produced about three hundred altar paintings, most for churches in the midwestern states. Her altar paintings were purchased primarily by pastors and churches of the United Church. She and her husband were long-time members of Minneapolis’s Bethlehem Lutheran Church, for which she made an altar painting. When the congregation moved from its 1899 building to a new church in the late 1920s, the Raugland altar painting was re-installed in the new sanctuary, where it remains.

Sarah Kirkeberg Raugland died in 1960 at the age of 98.

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arah Raugland’s 1893 catalog, issued by Augsburg Publishing House, includes a list of altar paintings she had produced for eighteen churches in five midwestern states. The first painting on her list was made for Pastor H. C. Wik’s congregation in Urne (Nelson), Wisconsin. Although neither signed nor dated, it is likely that she painted this just before 1890. According to a testimonial in the catalog, the painting was purchased by three women’s groups in the Lyster congregation as part of a renovation of their 1870 church.

The artist was praised for her work on this early painting. Pastor Wik is quoted in the 1893 catalog: Miss Sarah Kirkeberg has painted an altar painting for Lyster Congregation. It shows the Savior on the cross. We are in all ways well satisfied with the picture. We think that it is very well done, and everyone who has seen it thinks so. I believe that Sarah Kirkeberg deserves acknowledgement as a fine artist, and that she is Norwegian is an honor for our nationality, and our people ought to send their business to her.

The subject is a crucifixion, showing Jesus alone and isolated against a darkened landscape.

In other versions of the crucifixion, artists like Raugland would sometimes include figures under the cross. A narrow painting like this one often showed only the figure of Jesus, as it made the most efficient use of the available space.

The crucifixion was a common altar subject through the late nineteenth century, painted with some frequency by artists like Raugland and Gausta. By the early twentieth century, however, the subject became less popular, driven perhaps by anti-Catholic sentiment or a desire for more pleasant subjects. At Lyster Lutheran Church, the crucifixion was removed from the altar and replaced with a picture of Jesus knocking at the door.

Sarah Kirkeberg Raugland, Crucifixion, c. 1889-1890.

Lyster Lutheran Church, Nelson, Wisconsin.

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ne of the very popular images for altar paintings was Jesus and Peter on the Sea of Galilee.

The picture is based on the episode in Matthew 14:22-33. Similar stories are found in Mark 6:47-52 and John 6:16-21, but it is only in the Matthew version that Peter walks out onto the water with Jesus. The moment of the story chosen for the picture is described in verses 30 and 31: “But when he (Peter) saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save me.’

Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘O man of little faith, why did you doubt?’” In some cases, the words “Lord, Save Me” or “Herre, Frels Mig” are carved or painted into the altar frame.

The story and its treatment show elements common to many of the Norwegian-American altars. Only two principal figures are included in the image, and they are shown close together and close to the picture plane. The story lends itself to a vertical orientation, allowing the figures to fill the available space. This helps to make them visible from any part of the sanctuary. Secondary elements in the story—here, for example, the rest of the disciples in the boat—are set in the background of the picture.

Sarah Raugland painted this picture in 1901 for St. Peter’s Lutheran Church of Houston, Minnesota. It is now displayed at Cross of Christ Lutheran Church, a congregation formed as two historic Houston parishes merged. Raugland’s model for this picture was a painting by Bernhard Plockhorst (1825-1907). Plockhorst was a professor of art in Weimar, Germany, in the late 1860s, but was most famous for a variety of religious scenes, including a version of Jesus and Peter on the Sea of Galilee for the altar of the Holy Trinity Church in Hanover, Germany.

Sarah Kirkeberg Raugland, Advertising card, c. 1895-99.

(Courtesy of Maxine Meyer.)

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he Wartburg Congregation was established at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, in November 1902. The group worshiped in the seminary’s chapel in Bøckman Hall. The Wartburg Congregation included many members of the seminary community, including the seminary professors and their families. This worshiping community eventually split from the seminary and became St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church, whose building is across the street from the seminary campus.

Sarah Raugland was commissioned to paint the altar picture for the Luther Seminary chapel. Her selection as the artist was not surprising, due to her strong professional connections to the United Church congregations and pastors. The subject of the altar painting, however, is quite unusual. It shows Jesus calling the first disciples. While it is not at all typical, it is quite a logical choice for a seminary chapel. Raugland completed this painting in June 1902.

Raugland copied an image by the German painter Ernst Zimmermann (1852-1899). The original painting was shown in the Jubilee Exhibition in Berlin in 1886. Like the other altar painters, Raugland generally copied popular paintings, especially late nineteenth century works by German artists. These paintings were reproduced in tracts, prints, and Bible illustrations, and were often widely known and admired. In fact, St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church has a mid-twentieth century collection of Sunday school posters in its education wing, one of which shows this very scene.

Sarah Kirkeberg Raugland, Jesus Calling the Disciples (after Zimmermann), 1902.

St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minnesota. Original setting: Wartburg Chapel, Luther Seminary.

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orwegian-American altar artists painted many variations of Bernhard Plockhorst’s picture of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Some artists included all of the elements originally present in Plockhorst’s pastoral scene. Others altered the image for reasons as varied as available space, cost, or theology. For example, artists were known to omit some or all of the flock of sheep around Jesus. This was done by less competent artists in an effort to simplify the task of painting the altar, as well as by very competent artists, like Gausta, to better fit a narrow space or to better focus the viewer’s attention on the central figure. It was not uncommon for artists to make the flock’s lone black sheep into a white sheep, citing theological reasons for the alteration.

The Good Shepherd included in the exhibit was painted in 1909 by Sarah Raugland for York Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Blanchardville, Wisconsin. The congregation’s centennial history (1955) names Ole Thompson as the donor of the $100 used to purchase the painting. After the York Church closed, the painting was moved to a successor congregation, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in New Glarus, Wisconsin. This congregation stored the painting in its attic for some years, but the picture was restored in 1989 and now hangs prominently in the sanctuary of Shepherd of the Hills.

Sarah Kirkeberg Raugland, The Good Shepherd (after Plockhorst), 1909.

Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, New Glarus, Wisconsin. Original setting: York Evangelical Lutheran Church, Blanchardville, Wisconsin.

(Courtesy of Ronald Nybroten.)

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Arne Berger

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rne Berger was born in Valdres, Norway, in 1872. He was in Minneapolis by the early 1890s. Berger was listed as an artist with the J. E. Burt Portrait Company in 1893. The following year he moved to Northfield, Minnesota, where he worked until 1903. Berger began his altar painting business during that decade. While in Northfield, he also made portraits for members of the community, including officials and faculty from St. Olaf College.

Berger came to Decorah by late 1903, where he re-established his art business, the Eureka Portrait Company. From his studio in Decorah he continued his altar painting and portrait work. In 1907 Berger moved to Portland, Oregon, where he sold landscapes, portraits, and altar paintings, including a portrait of Oregon’s governor and more than sixty altars.

Arne Berger returned to Minneapolis in 1917 and he set up his studio at Nicollet Avenue and 33rd Street. At this point, he published his Catalogue and Price List, in which he listed the various types of art he was willing to do. This included altar painting, portrait work, and landscape painting, as well as restoration work and art instruction. Along with many other local artists, Berger participated in the Norse-American Centennial show in 1925.

While the majority of the identified Berger altar paintings were done in the first two decades of the twentieth century, Berger continued to paint altars into the 1920s and 1930s. His 1934 copy of Heinrich Hofmann’s Jesus in Gethsemane, done for Grace Lutheran Church in Fairmont, Minnesota, is his last documented work.

Berger died in Minneapolis in 1951.

Arne Berger, c. 1903.

From Catalogue from A. Berger, Artist, Decorah, Iowa (1903).

ND237.B475 C38 1903 Minnesota Historical Society.

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A. Berger recently completed an oil painting representing Christ walking on the waters for the Little Cannon Church in Goodhue county.

Messrs. Berger and Andrew Svein hung the picture last week. Its dimensions are 5x9 feet. The picture is a credit to the artist and the congregation is well pleased with it.

— Northfield Independent

Berger reproduced this letter in his 1919

catalog, one of many testimonials from satisfied customers included in the booklet.

The Little Cannon Church, located north of Kenyon, Minnesota, was begun in 1897. The congregation’s building was finally dedicated in 1901, and Berger’s painting was completed in 1900, in time for this dedication. A 1903 catalog, published when Berger re-established himself in Decorah, specifies $125 as the price for a 10 x 5 version of this painting. Berger offered four smaller sizes ranging in price from $55 to $100.

The Little Cannon Church had closed by the mid-1950s, and the building was purchased by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. The building was moved to a new site, and in 1987 St. Paul’s built a new church. The painting was removed from the old building and restored, and now hangs in St. Paul’s new church building.

Arne Berger, Jesus and Peter on the Sea of Galilee from his Catalogue and Price List of Altar Paintings, Landscapes, and Oil Paintings from Life and from Photographs (c. 1919).

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he story of the ascension was a common altar subject, as the story’s visual elements were expressed in a strong vertical movement as Jesus ascends to heaven. This was true in scenes with disciples (either four or eleven) below the ascending figure, or in versions showing Jesus alone. In this painting from Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Grand Marais, Minnesota, Arne Berger copied the solitary figure, forcing the viewer to focus on Jesus alone, without the distractions of other figures or landscape elements. The model for Berger’s 1908 painting had been created by the German artist Gottlieb Biermann (1758-1844).

Bethlehem’s congregational history states that the Ladies Aid purchased the painting for $75 from Berger, who was living in Portland, Oregon, at the time. Berger’s 1919 catalog includes a December, 1908 letter to him from the Reverend C. G. Eidnes of Bethlehem Lutheran Church: Now the picture of Jesus’ Ascension is installed in the altar of Bethlehem Church here in Grand Marais, and it must be said that it is a work for which a price cannot be set, for everyone who has seen the picture is overtaken by such a commanding and beautiful work. It would be superfluous for me to recommend his work, because the piece itself gives the best recommendation for its master; yet it is my pleasure to send from myself and my congregation the best thanks, for it is in all respects satisfactory work.

Arne Berger, Ascension (after Biermann), 1908.

Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Grand Marais, Minnesota.

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or about sixty-five years, an image of Jesus in Gethsemane was seen in the altar frame of Zion Lutheran Church in International Falls, Minnesota.

The painting is a copy of Heinrich Hofmann’s 1890 version of Jesus in Gethsemane, now owned by Riverside Church in New York and displayed in their Gethsemane chapel. The original painting was a gift to Riverside Church by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Despite its origins in the late nineteenth century, Hofmann’s painting is one of the best known images of this episode in Jesus’ life. Recent critics have suggested that Jesus seems remarkably and unrealistically untroubled by the gravity of his situation; nevertheless, this rather sweet depiction of Jesus at prayer seemed to fit the piety of its age.

The painting bears the signature of Arne Berger and indicates a date of 1924 for its completion, however, the origins of the painting are not as straightforward as the signature seems to indicate. The fiftieth anniversary history of Zion Lutheran Church (1962) makes it quite clear that this is a Gausta commission.

The famous painting by Hoffman (sic) of Christ in Gethsemane was reproduced on our altar by a master artist, Mr. Gaustad (sic), whose original works are treasured in museums and at Luther College. When contacted to paint for Zion, he asked if there was any relationship between Pastor Evans and a certain man he knew in Decorah, Iowa, by the name of Christopher Evans. When he was told it was the pastor’s own father, he related how Mr. Evans had befriended him, a penniless immigrant boy from Norway, taken him in and given him a home, room, and board until he could get work. “If I can paint you a picture during my spare time, I’ll paint it for the cost of the materials.” Thus bread cast upon the waters, to quote the inspired writer of Ecclesiastes, returned to bless the giver. The painting was a project of the Luther League.

Arne Berger and Herbjørn Gausta, Jesus in Gethsemane (after Hofmann), 1924.

Zion Lutheran Church, International Falls, Minnesota.

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The presence of Berger’s signature on the painting for the thirty-eight years preceding the history booklet’s publication seems not to have dissuaded the congregation from an attribution to Gausta.

Pastor Robert Evans, mentioned in the text above, arrived at Zion in 1923, and he seems to have worked quickly on a number of projects necessary for the completion of the 1916 church building. While Gausta clearly agreed to do the painting—and for the cost of materials only—it is likely that he was unable to complete the project before his debilitating stroke in March 1924, and his subsequent death on May 22, 1924. Berger probably completed this work-in-progress from the Gausta studio. It is not clear which parts of the painting were completed by each artist, although variations in the quality of the modeling on the hands and the face, and the variation in surface at the figure’s head, may be indications of the contributions of two different artists.

Zion’s original church building was replaced over a decade ago, and this painting now hangs in the church’s concourse area.

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