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Harriet Backer. Every Atom is Colour
29 Sep 2023 — 15 Jun 2025 at Nationalmuseum
· Stockholm
Harriet Backer. Every Atom is Colour is a major retrospective dedicated to one of Norway's most celebrated painters, Harriet Backer (1845–1932). The exhibition travels across four prestigious institutions — Nasjonalmuseet (Oslo), Nationalmuseum (Stockholm), Musée d'Orsay (Paris), and Kode Art Museums and Composer Homes (Bergen) — bringing together a comprehensive selection of her work.
Backer was a pioneering figure in Scandinavian art, renowned for her extraordinary sensitivity to colour, atmosphere, and interior light. Her canvases — intimate domestic scenes, church interiors, and portraits — reveal a painter of rare psychological depth and technical brilliance. The exhibition title, Every Atom is Colour, captures her belief that colour is not merely a surface quality but the very substance of perception and feeling.
This travelling retrospective offers audiences across Europe a rare opportunity to experience the full arc of Backer's career, from her early studies abroad to her mature works that secured her place among the leading painters of her generation.
Backer was a pioneering figure in Scandinavian art, renowned for her extraordinary sensitivity to colour, atmosphere, and interior light. Her canvases — intimate domestic scenes, church interiors, and portraits — reveal a painter of rare psychological depth and technical brilliance. The exhibition title, Every Atom is Colour, captures her belief that colour is not merely a surface quality but the very substance of perception and feeling.
This travelling retrospective offers audiences across Europe a rare opportunity to experience the full arc of Backer's career, from her early studies abroad to her mature works that secured her place among the leading painters of her generation.
About the artist
Harriet Backer
1845–1932
Harriet Backer was a Norwegian painter who achieved recognition in her own time and was a pioneer among female artists both in the Nordic countries and in Europe generally. She is best known for her detailed interior scenes, communicated with rich colors and the interplay of light and shadow.
About the artist →About the venue
Nationalmuseum
· Stockholm
Nationalmuseum is the national gallery of fine arts of Sweden, located on the peninsula Blasieholmen in central Stockholm.
