painters of the twentieth century, were dissimilar both as artists and individuals. The author, Kristján Albertson, once told me that several school boys had collected money to buy a painting which they intended giving one of their teachers. They went to Þórarinn and wanted to buy a painting from him but he said to them: “Why don’t you buy a picture from Ásgrímur, he’s much better painter than I am.” This indicates Þórarinn’s opinion of Ásgrímur as well as his humility towards his own art. Yet it was Jón Stefánsson who was the artist with whom Þórarinn had most contact in his latter years and whom he admired most. It was around Þórarinn that the first artistic life, as such, evolved in Reykjavík. After Þórarinn became a family man he saw that art alone could not support his family. Therefore he acquainted himself with technical drawing in Copenhagen and became a drawing teacher and later schoolmaster of the newly established Technical College in Reykjavík. There he taught free-hand drawing in addition to technical drawing. Among his pupils in this subject were the sculptor Ásmundur Sveinsson and the author Halldór Laxness both of whom have since spoken of this time with enthusiasm and admiration for the man and his teaching. Þórarinn also taught drawing at other schools in Reykjavík. Þórarinn painted several altar-pieces which would have been done as commis- sions. One such altarpiece is in the church of Bær in the district of Borgarfjöröur, painted in 1907. This is modelled on the altar-piece in the cathedral in Reykjavík. Despite the fact that Þórarinn had a model to work from he imitated it only as far as the subject matter was concerned for the colours are radically different; Þórarinn’s altar-piece is done in every thinkable shade of blue. When considering the altar- piece in Bær church the well known words of Jóhannes S. Kjarval come to mind: “Yes, Þórarinn dear chap, none of us have managed to attain his range of blues.“ Once more Þórarinn travelled overseas in 1921 at the age of 54 and for the first time he visited central Europe. One of the places he went to on this trip was Berlin in order to visit galleries. One can just imagine what a vivid and powerful impression the galleries and exhibitions must have made on such a sensitive artist. Indeed one can say that on returning from this trip his paintings became even deeper in colour and their composition more definite and stronger. It is no exaggeration that the works from the last three years of his life were the pinnacle of his creative career. 40

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(93) Rear Flyleaf
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(95) Back Cover
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(97) Scale
(98) Color Palette