''Leiv Eirikson Discovering America'' () is a painting by

Christian Krohg Christian Krohg (13 August 1852 – 16 October 1925) was a Norwegian naturalist painter, illustrator, author and journalist. Krohg was inspired by the realism art movement and often chose motifs from everyday life. He was the director and s ...

. It depicts the explorer

Leif Erikson Leif Erikson, also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norsemen, Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental Americas, America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According ...

, together with crewmembers onboard his ship, at the moment he discovers American land (presumably

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

), as described in the

sagas of Icelanders The sagas of Icelanders (, ), also known as family sagas, are a subgenre, or text group, of Icelandic Saga, sagas. They are prose narratives primarily based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and earl ...

. The painting was made for the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and was exhibited along with the

Viking ship replica Viking ship replicas are one of the more common types of ship replica. ''Viking'', the first Viking ship replica, was built by the Rødsverven shipyard in Sandefjord, Norway. In 1893 it sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Chicago in the United ...

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

''. It is in the collection of the

National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design The National Museum (, officially the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design) is a museum in Oslo, Norway which holds the Norwegian state's public collection of art, architecture, and design objects. The collection totals over 400,000 w ...

in Oslo. A copy of the painting, created by Krohg's son, Per Krohg, has hung in the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the Seat of government, seat of the United States Congress, the United States Congress, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, federal g ...

since 1936.

Background

(1852–1925) was a Norwegian painter and novelist. He came to prominence in Norway in the 1880s as a leading

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and as one of the

Kristiania Bohemians The Kristiania Bohemians () were a political and cultural movement in the 1880s centered in Kristiania (now Oslo). Hans Jæger was the central figure in the movement, and other prominent members included Christian Krohg, Oda Krohg, Jon Flatabø, H ...

. Beginning with ''Babord litt'' from 1879, he made several paintings depicting sailors and maritime pilots. ''Leiv Eirikson Discovering America'' can be counted to this group. It was commissioned in 1891 by the Leif Erikson Memorial Association in Chicago, an organisation set up by

Norwegian Americans Norwegian Americans () are Americans with ancestral roots in Norway. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century. There are more than 4.5 milli ...

, which invited Krohg and other painters to a contest where they would paint

's discovery of America, as described in the medieval

. The winning painting would be exhibited at the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ...

—the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Krohg's painting won and was sent to Chicago.

Subject and composition

''Leiv Eirikson Discovering America'' is painted in

oil on canvas Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or copper for several centuries. ...

with the dimensions . The painting presents a view from the deck of Leif Erikson's ship, looking out over the waves with land visible in the distance to the left. To the right in the picture is the title figure, holding the rudder and wearing a mustard-coloured tunic. He stands straight and points toward the land in the horizon. A few other men on deck are hunching and look seasick.

Analysis and reception

The role ''Leiv Eirikson Discovering America'' played in American society has been associated with Scandinavian immigration, as the stories of pre-Columbian Nordic voyages to North America formed a part of Scandinavian American assimilation into American nationhood. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this narrative of identity caused some conflict with

Italian Americans Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

, as the

discovery of America The human history of the Americas is thought to begin with people migrating to these areas from Asia during the height of an ice age. These groups are generally believed to have been isolated from the people of the "Old World" until the coming o ...

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

had a similar role in their assimilation process. ''Leiv Eirikson Discovering America'' was featured at the Chicago World's Fair along with the ship ''

'', a replica of the Viking Age

Gokstad ship The Gokstad ship is a 9th-century Viking ship found in a burial mound at Gokstad in Sandar, Norway, Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway. It is displayed at the Viking Ship Museum (Oslo), Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway. It is the largest pr ...

, which sailed from Norway to the United States and anchored at Chicago's Jackson Park in time for the event. Much literature associated with the world's fair, including official programs, incorrectly identified both ''Viking'' and the ship in Krohg's painting as exact replicas of the ship Leif Erikson had sailed across the Atlantic. The large painting became a popular attraction for those who had missed ''Viking''s arrival or wanted to relive it. Analyzing the painting in 2019, historian Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough says Leif "radiates strength and leadership" and is depicted with a purposefulness which contrasts with the other men in the image. The historian Johnni Langer places ''Leiv Eirikson Discovering America'' in the same European tradition of depicting Viking voyages as

Oscar Wergeland Oscar Arnold Wergeland (12 October 1844 – 20 May 1910) was a Norwegian painter. He is best known for his historical painting of the Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll (''Riksforsamlingen på Eidsvoll 1814''). Two of his paintings are held in ...

's ''The Norwegians Land in Iceland Year 872'' (1877), and contrasts it with ''Arrival of the Viking in America'' (1845) by the German American

Emanuel Leutze Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (May 24, 1816July 18, 1868) was a German-born American history painter, best known for his 1851 painting '' Washington Crossing the Delaware''. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. Biography Leutze w ...

. This European tradition is distinguished from the American by avoiding humorous features.

Provenance

''Leiv Eirikson Discovering America'' won the Leif Erikson Memorial Association's contest and was part of the Chicago World's Fair. The world's fair also featured two paintings by Krohg's wife

Oda Krohg Oda Krohg (born Othilia Pauline Christine Lasson; 11 June 1860 – 19 October 1935) was a Norwegian painter, and the wife of her teacher and colleague Christian Krohg. Biography She was the second daughter of public attorney Christian ...

. The first years after the world's fair, ''Leiv Eirikson Discovering America'' was without a permanent home. In 1900, the Leif Erikson Memorial Association gifted it to the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

in Oslo, now part of Norway's

. The catalogue for Norway's exhibition at the Chicago World's Fair lists the painting's name as ''Leif Erikson Discovering America''. The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design uses the name ''Leiv Eirikson Discovering America''.

Norwegian exhibitions

Following its donation, the painting was displayed at various times in both the

(where it often was prominently hung above the stairwell) and the

Norwegian Maritime Museum The Norwegian Maritime Museum () is located at Bygdøynesveien on the Bygdøy peninsula, on the western side of Oslo, Norway. The Norwegian Maritime Museum is situated near several other museums, including the Fram Museum; the Kon-Tiki Museum; th ...

. In January 2019, the National Gallery was closed to allow its collection to be moved to the National Museum's new building, which opened in June 2022. Upon its opening, a decision had been made to not display the painting in the new museum, but rather to place it in storage. Following media reports in February 2023, the decision to not exhibit the painting, and the justification given by museum staff, caused controversy in Norway.

Stina Högkvist Stina Högkvist is a Swedish art curator and an art historian. Together with Norwegian curator Marianne Zamecznik, she founded the Simon Says curatorial platform in Stockholm, Sweden, and ran it between 2001 and 2003. She has been working at the ...

, the department director at the National Museum explained the situation to the

Aftenposten (; ; stylized as in the masthead) is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation as well as Norway's newspaper of record. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 daily copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen ...

newspaper, saying; "The picture is a romanticization of Norwegians who went to America. It is a colonialist image" and further added "We are now showing more female artists, more

Sámi Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

artists and more art by people whom were not born with white skin. We shall continue with this. We must have a socially relevant, fresh look at the history of art." Criticism was swift from politicians, art historians, and the general public. Eivor Evenrud, from Oslo City Council's Culture and Education Committee, called the decision "completely absurd." In response to the criticism, Stina Högkvist apologized and clarified, stating that her remark was sloppy and poorly thought out, and that she didn't actually believe that the painting was colonialist. Following the controversy, the National Museum temporarily displayed the painting on the new museum's main floor for four weeks.

Copy at the United States Capitol

During the

74th Congress The 74th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from January 3, 193 ...

, Senator Alben W. Barkley introduced Senate Joint Resolution 165 which directed the

Architect of the Capitol The Architect of the Capitol is the Federal government of the United States, federal Government agency, agency responsible for the maintenance, operation, development, and preservation of the United States Capitol Complex. It is an agency of t ...

to accept a copy of the painting to be displayed within the

. After Congress passed the legislation, it was signed by President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

on 18 March 1936. On 23 March 1936, during a ceremony held in

National Statuary Hall The National Statuary Hall is a chamber in the United States Capitol devoted to sculptures of prominent Americans. The hall, also known as the Old Hall of the House, is a large, two-story, semicircular room with a second story gallery along the ...

, the copy was presented as a gift by the Norwegian Friends of America. Titled ''Leiv Eiriksson Discovers America A.D. 1000'', the copy was painted by Krohg's son, Per Krohg. The artwork hangs in the Capitol's Senate wing, next to the Senators' Gallery door on the building's third floor.

References

External links

*
Leiv Eiriksson discovering America
The National Museum {{Norse exploration of the Americas 1893 paintings Paintings by Christian Krohg Paintings in the National Museum of Norway Cultural depictions of Leif Erikson History paintings Maritime paintings Works based on sagas World's Columbian Exposition