FFF #12 – Einar Jónsson Museum, Cafe Loki, and Hallgrímur’s Church
[Written 3 May 2014]
This week was so busy that I never managed to do a recap of last weekend’s FFF outing, but here at last it is!
The main goal (heh) this time was to visit the The Museum of Einar Jónsson, which is yet another place I’ve driven past a thousand times, but never actually entered. Happily, the museum is right next to the church of Hallgrímur (famous poet), which is always fun to take photos of, especially in nice weather.
It turns out this Einar guy was Iceland’s first (modern?) sculptor, educated in Denmark around 1900. I hadn’t realized, but I’ve seen his work all over the place – he’s responsible for many of the ‘main’ sculptures found around town.
Now, having walked through the museum, I’ll grant him that he was a really good sculptor, but not really my cup of tea. (Too religious, and dramatic.)
On to the photos! (83 images total, eeek!)
The museum building. From the museum website: “In 1909, Einar Jónsson offered all of his works as a gift to the Icelandic people on the condition that a museum be built to house them. This gift was not accepted by the Icelandic Parliament until 1914, however. The Parliament contributed 10,000 crowns to the construction of the museum, while a national collection yielded 20,000 crowns in private donations.”
Getting closer.
The sun was high in the sky that day.
Selfie, taken from the steps. Behind me is the church of Hallgrímur (Hallgrímskirkja).
Hallgrímskirkja. It sits right at the top of the hill, making it one of the landmarks of Reykjavík.
I paid my entrance fee of 1000 kr ($9) to a guy who reeked of stale alcohol, and started wandering around the first hall.
A bronze version of this guy (Ingólfur Arnarson, first historic settler of Iceland) lives downtown on the top of a small hill.
I was bemused by the fact that the poor confused Icelanders managed to delay the work by being confused.
The view over to the other end.
This is ‘Dawn‘, which I just found to be plain creepy. But it nicely demonstrates the artist’s proclivity to have persons slung over other persons.
The Outlaws is another statue I know from the west side of town. And yes, it features another scantily clad woman being slung.
From the second floor display room, I climbed a narrow spiral staircase to the third floor, where the artist and his wife lived for some time.
Their rooms are preserved (behind a plastic partition). This was Anna’s room.
This was Einar’s room. The yellow entrance is to a small bedroom, and there’s a duplicate one on Anna’s side. There didn’t seem to be a bathroom up there.
A small text about their home.
A photo of the newly finished house. It was built on what was then an empty hill.
Their living room.
A nice view out of one of the windows.
The bookcases were filled with copies of “Illustreret tidende” (Illustrated news magazine).
Interesting paint job on the wall.
Bigger books.
The church, as seen out the window. The windows themselves were single pained, but there were two partitions for each window.
Maximum number of coffee drinkers allowed: 6.
Next I ventured all the way to the first (ground) floor, using the same spiral staircase.
This floor had five showrooms, this is the first one.
“Protection” (Vernd) was probably my favorite of his.
The artist’s hands. Eerie!
Stuff he made when he was young. Not bad…!
A photo showing just how desolate the area looked when the house was built.
The top one is called “Remorse“, and sure is eye-catching (heh… heh…).
The thing that’s missing from these images is their scale. There weren’t a lot of other visitors there, probably because the weather was way too nice to be indoors much, but just to be clear… that orange thing there is the doorway into the room.
The thing about sculptures is that…
… they’re in 3D, so taking photos of them is triiiickky!
Back in the first room, and about to head the other way. Walking into rooms with huge pieces of art is weird.
So, before really entering, I took a sharp left and entered this small room.
Small work displaying some other common elements: A row of persons, closely pressed together, forming a geometrical shape, and someone lying prone.
A list of those who donated money so the house could be built.
The artist’s idea/suggestion for the church of Hallgrímur.
Back in the room with the crazy big pieces of art. The piece on the right is “The Spell Broken“, whereas the big face is called “Rest“.
Very cool dragon’s hide.
The fifth and last room.
Kind of like a fossil, but with some added elements.
I think this one was called “Spring”.
Close-up of Spring. (Yes, I had my camera set to more noise, less blur – which is a common tradeoff.)
I liked the hand and hair detail. The rest of the statue is all agony.
The artist really, really liked wings. They’re everywhere!
I had to take the stairs back out again, because the garden exit is being fixed. On the way I finally found a public toilet. Lets just say that it’s not even remotely wheelchair accessible.
I snapped a photo in the blue room before exiting and heading for the back-garden.
This garden is open to the public, but alas, I’d never gone in there before.
The house and the church seen through some trees.
And this is what spring looks like. Finally!
The house and the church behind it. That “tube” on the back of the house is the spiral staircase! The yellow room is on the far right, the green on the far left, and the orange ones are in the middle.
There were a few people milling about in the garden.
Some of the works were also on display inside, just made out of a different material.
It’s hard to take photos of a bunch of bronze statues. They tend to blend in to the background!
Looking towards the back of the house and ‘Protection’.
Click and drag the image above to look around!
Something metaphysical.
Here be nests.
Can you spot the raven?
This comes from norse mythology, Ýmir og Auðhumla. Yeah.
The surrounding houses. That glass structure on the right houses the museum garden entrance.
Exiting the garden, I started looking for a cafe, and immediately found Cafe Loki, aka the local tourist feeding trap.
It’s hard not to take photos of Hallgrímskirkja while walking past it!
This wall inside Cafe Loki speaks to the photographic fun that is to be had with the church.
The first floor was full when I arrived, so I was told to go to the second floor, which was practically empty. (Side note: Those little frames on the wall caught my eye, but I forgot to take better pictures. Their cousins will appear in FFF #13.)
Icelanders placing their order ahead of me.
The hot chocolate was slightly nutty, and gets a 4 out of 5. The raw cake was delicious, but the combo was on the pricey side.
Still… the view was nice.
If you squint really hard you can see a couple of folks sitting on the stairs, sharing a beer, enjoying the sun.
The first floor was of course deserted when I headed out.
How to recognize a tourist trap.
The view to the left…
… and the view to the right. This is what downtown housing looks like.
Outside the church is a big statue of Leif the Lucky, discoverer of America. It was not made by Einar Jónsson.
Leif’s point of view.
I had just enough time to go inside the church for a quick peek.
It’s surprisingly plain-looking on the inside.
A second selfie! Gasp!
Impressive pipe organ is impressive.
The plain-looking altar.
People milling about, and the organ looking a little dangerous.
Outside again, in the shade.
The church is such a fun building to photograph, it was hard to stop. Also, it’s possible to take an elevator up to the tower, but I didn’t, mostly because I was out of time. Maybe next time?
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