Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.08.2011, Blaðsíða 23

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2011
few people died that year, and the cem-
etery stood empty, it was deemed that
none of them were of the right standing
to be its first patron. Finally, the lady
Guðrún Oddsdóttir was deemed wor-
thy enough, she and her family were
considered to be in good standing in
Reykjavík and her grave is marked by
the largest iron cross in the cemetery—
maybe you can find it?
Hólavalla cemetery is a beautiful,
serene spot in the city, it is very in-
teresting to walk through, and there
are many hidden gems of art on the
headstones. A few of them are by Einar
Jónsson, three of which are very close
to each other. They are ‘Come to me’
and ‘Morgunroðinn’ on the grave-
stones of Hannes Hafstein and his
wife Ragnheiður Hafstein. Look for
graves marked with two broken black
marble pillars. Hannes was a poet and
the first Icelandic minister. Einar also
made a statue of him, which you will
observe later on this walk. The third
is the gravestone of Þorsteinn Erlings-
son and his wife Guðrún. Þorsteinn
was a journalist and a poet. He could
be called radical, often writing against
norms and traditions that he thought
were hampering the Icelandic nation.
Einar designed the shape of the stone,
which seems to depict either a candle
or a tear. On it is a small bronze plate,
which shows a scene similar to another
work of Einar called ‘Brautryðjandinn’
which can be seen later on the pedestal
of Jón Sigurðsson. Þorsteinn was a dear
friend of Einar and died at a relatively
young age, so it comes as no surprise
that Einar would have wanted to show
his respect in this way.
6.
Here stands Jón Sigurðsson, with
his head held up high and his back
straight as an arrow, watching the par-
liament building. Jón Sigurðsson was a
pioneer in Iceland’s struggle for inde-
pendence. This statue originally stood
in front of the government offices and
was unveiled there in 1911. In 1931 it was
moved here to replace the aforemen-
tioned Bertel Thorvaldsen self-portrait.
Note the smaller work on the pedestal,
it is called ‘The pioneer’, and it depicts
how Einar viewed Jón and how he want-
ed him to be remembered; as a strong
pioneer who paved the way for the rest
of us. It was a gift from Einar Jónsson,
one which allowed him to look past the
fact that he was once again forced to do
go against his artistic vision and make
a lifelike statue. Einar never liked this
pedestal they placed Jón on. He report-
edly always thought the statue looked
like it was leaning backwards, like it
was falling. What do you think?
7.
Two statues by Einar stand here in
front of the government offices, the
one to the left is King Christian the 9th
of Denmark (and Iceland at the time),
holding a rolled up piece of paper which
is supposed to be the first Icelandic
constitution. Einar finished this statue
in 1907, but it was not unveiled here
until 1915 due to Icelanders’ prevalently
ambivalent attitude about erecting the
king of Denmark a memorial. This was
when Iceland was still trying to gain
more independence from Denmark, so
praising the king seemed a little contra-
dictory to some.
The statue on the right depicts
Hannes Hafstein, whose grave you will
have stopped by if you are following our
map. He was the first Icelandic Minis-
ter and a poet. He was actually a damn
good poet; look up the poem ‘Stormur’
(“Storm”) for conclusive proof of that.
Hannes was one of the men that paved
the way for Einar Jónsson’s art educa-
tion, by agreeing in congress to grant
him a sizeable amount of money so he
could pursue his studies abroad. Einar
would have felt honoured to be able to
repay the favour in this way. Another
thing of note is that this is actually the
pedestal on which the statue of Jón
Sigurðsson stood first, if you remem-
ber the shape of ‘The Pioneer’ you will
notice that the shield on which Hannes
Hafstein's name is on is in the same
shape as ‘The Pioneer’. Jón Sigurðsson
and ‘The Pioneer’ were both moved
over to Austurvöllur when the statue of
Hannes Hafstein was put here in 1931.
8.
The Icelandic Craftsman Associa-
tion (ATH – Iðnaðarmannafélagið) in
Reykjavik donated money and held
fund raising events so that a memorial
to Ingólfur Arnarson (who was the first
Icelandic settler, as legend would have
it) could be raised on Arnarhóll. Einar
had actually started working on a statue
of Ingólfur before being approached by
the association. He even wrote in a let-
ter to a friend in 1902 that he would
want it erected on Arnarhóll. Because of
difficulties raising funds and problems
between the Craftsman association and
Einar, the statue was not unveiled until
1924. The whole process took around
22 years. The committee from the asso-
ciation was happy with the statue of In-
gólfur himself, but they had a big prob-
lem with the four reliefs Einar wanted
to accompany the statue. They depicted
scenes which the committee thought
were offensive and had in fact nothing
to do with the strong Viking man Ingól-
fur was supposed to have been. Einar
wanted to show the story of why Ingól-
fur chose to come to Iceland, the com-
mittee especially disliked the sentence
"You should lead yourself," or "Sjálfur
leið þú sjálfan þig"—words that Einar
thought defined what Ingólfur was
all about. The men in the committee
thought this was too radical and went
against what the Old Icelandic sagas
said about Ingólfur. So the statue was
raised without the reliefs or the pedes-
tal Einar had designed. Einar himself
did not show up to the unveiling. The
statue is often used as a kind of a logo
for Reykjavík.
9.
The Culture House was built to
house the national library and national
archives of Iceland, the National Mu-
seum and Natural History Museum
were also housed there for some time,
and it became known as the Museum
Building. It is one of the most beauti-
ful buildings in Reykjavík and is men-
tioned here because the statues of Jónas
Hallgrímsson and Jón Sigurðsson were
originally supposed to stand in front of
it. Today it houses a permanent exhibi-
tion of Old Icelandic manuscripts that
are very much worth a look.
10.
This is the final stop, the home and
studio of the sculptor Einar Jónsson,
built for him by the Icelandic state after
he donated all of his work to the people
of Icelandic. The house was designed
by Einar himself in collaboration with
the architect Einar Erlendsson and is
sometimes said to be his biggest sculp-
ture. It was given the name Hnitbjörg
by some of Einar's friends. Hnitbjörg
in Norse mythology is where the poetic
mead was kept and Einar was some-
times referred to as the poet sculptor.
The museum first opened its doors to
the public in 1923 and has welcomed
guests ever since. A good place to start
is the sculpture garden behind the mu-
seum, which contains quite a few exam-
ples of Einar's work in bronze. The mu-
seum itself contains around 300 works
of art made by Einar in his lifetime as
well as his studio and living quarters in
their original state.
walking in the shadows of giants
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