Decorating the Merchant Marine Academy
In December 1921, a competition was announced for the decoration of the capital’s newly built Merchant Marine Academy at Ekeberg. Per Krohg won with his proposed Zodiac murals, which depicted a seaman’s eventful journey. Krohg’s entry to the competition faced much opposition, and his proposal underwent considerable change, from small paintings on canvas to frescoes on the walls of the Academy.
Opposition
In the studies that Per Krogh prepared for the frescoes at the Academy, the steam from a steamship is blowing in the same direction that the ship is travelling. He was accused of not understanding seafaring, and his paintings were called caricatures. Christiania Seamen’s Association stated that “It must be demanded that the artistic decoration be such that it has an instructive and ennobling effect on the Academy’s many and constantly changing young pupils.”
Turning according to the wind?
The poet Arnulf Øverland believed that Krogh’s frescoes would not last 100 years. Now, though, a century has passed, and the paintings still adorn the dark vestibule of the former Merchant Marine Academy. We can see the effects of the criticism Krogh received in the differences between the small paintings he supplied as his competition entry and the final frescoes on the walls. But the steam from the ship still billows in the direction of travel.
What did Krogh say about all the uproar?
“What remains for me is to appeal to the sailors’ imaginations, make them think, unbound by time and longitude and latitude, to tell stories about the mysticism and romance of that life, the adventure of the sea as we have been told it by returning seafarers bringing rare birds and gorgeous shawls from foreign countries.”
Chosen by Simon, History student
Photo: Anders Beer Wilse/Oslo Museum, the National Museum and Joanna Hench