The exhibition was officially opened by President of the Storting Olemic Thommessen on Wednesday 20th May.

The Storting’s Head of Communications, Siv Nordrum, opened proceedings by welcoming those present to the Storting’s first art exhibition “Maleriet Eidsvold 1814” (“The painting Eidsvold 1814”). Both President of the Storting Olemic Thommessen and curator Eivind Torkjelsson addressed the audience that was packed into the exhibition room. The exhibition has been put together to mark the 130th anniversary of Eidsvold 1814,Oscar Wergeland’s celebrated oil canvas.

For the exhibition the Storting has borrowed 17 of Oscar Wergeland’s sketches of the men of Eidsvoll from Eidsvoll 1814 – the Norwegian Centre for Constitutional History. Wergeland’s draft composition is also on display. Painted in 1882, the year it was commissioned by an army doctor called Lorentz Ring, it is now in private ownership, but has been lent to the Storting for the exhibition. Postcards, stamps and bank notes that use Eidsvold 1814 as a design are also being exhibited, along with the quill used by Wilhelm F. K. Christie, secretary to the Constituent Assembly and commonly known as the defender of the Constitution.

As the sole painting to portray the Constituent Assembly in its virtual entirety, Eidsvold 1814 is posterity’s only glimpse into the room where the men of Eidsvoll hammered out the Constitution. However, the painting was actually not completed until 1885, more than 70 years after the Constituent Assembly concluded proceedings by declaring that they would be “united and faithful until the Mountains of Dovre should fall”. The artist himself never met any of the men of Eidsvold. Nevertheless, today the painting has become a national symbol; one that commemorates the May days in 1814 when Norway’s Constitution was born.

That being said, Eidsvold 1814 tells us more than just the story of the Constituent Assembly in 1814. Painted in the 1880s, the canvas saw the light of day at the same time as the political struggle surrounding the introduction of parliamentarianism raged in Norway. Instituting parliamentarianism would require a change in the principle of the separation of powers that was enshrined in the Constitution. Consequently, Eidsvold 1814 may be interpreted as a contribution to the debate; an appeal in defence of constitutional conservatism.

Oscar Wergeland’s painting was donated to the Storting by Lorentz Ring, the man who commissioned the work. His intention was that it should become a property of the nation. The Storting received the gift on 14th May 1886 and made the decision to hang it behind the President’s podium in the Storting Chamber. Always the intention, this explains why it was composed to depict the two assemblies meeting: the Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll and whichever Storting is currently in sitting.

Are you interested in visiting the exhibition? If so, please feel free to take part in the public guided tours of the building on Saturdays up until Saturday 20th June (except Saturday 23rd May, when we regret to say that we are closed to the public). The Storting will also be opening its doors between 15.00 and 17.00 hours on Friday 29th May. Here, guided tours of the building – including the “Maleriet Eidsvold 1814” exhibition – will be run continuously. The exhibition will run until January 2016.