Þórarinn B. Þorláksson

Biography

In the summer of 1900, in a Reykjavík building with the unexpected name of “Glasgow”, an exhibition of Icelandic painting opened. Nothing like it had been shown in Iceland before. It was organised by Þórarinn Þorláksson, and its main subject was Þingvellir, the place where the Icelandic parliament had met since 930.

He was born on 14 February 1867 at Undirfell, the thirteenth of fourteen children of a clergyman. His father died when the boy was five. He trained as a bookbinder and worked in that trade. His first teacher of painting was Thóra Thoroddsen, an Icelandic woman who had been educated in Copenhagen. It is perhaps the most unusual detail of his path: his first teacher of art was a woman who had herself studied in Denmark. He then went there too and studied in Denmark from 1895 to 1899. The grant from the Icelandic parliament, the first in the country given to a painter, is linked with the year 1900. After returning home he showed his work at “Glasgow”. Landscape was what mattered most to him.

He went on holding exhibitions regularly until 1911. But painting alone could not support him, and he needed a regular income. On 30 December 1913 Prime Minister Hannes Hafstein appointed him to a committee of five people charged with designing the Flag of Iceland.

He taught drawing at the Technical College in Reykjavík and at other institutions, and from 1916 to 1922 he was principal of that college. Until the end of his life he ran a shop selling art materials, journals and books.

He did not stop painting in these years either, especially in summer, when he travelled into the countryside. Þórarinn Þorláksson died on 10 July 1924 at his summerhouse, Birkihlíð, in the Laugardalur valley.