Adam and Eve in Paradise

Guðmundur Thorsteinsson, known professionally as Muggur, was born in Bíldudalur in the West Fjords. He grew up in the cultured environment of a merchant’s home, where old Icelandic customs coexisted with Danish bourgeois culture. In 1903 the family moved to Copenhagen, and Muggur studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Art 1911–1915, having completed foundation studies at the Teknisk Selskabs Skole 1908–1911. In adult life Muggur travelled widely; his life and his art were indissolubly united. His drawings of day-to-day life have a humorous overtone. His art has a lyrical and melancholy atmosphere, and is more romantic than the work of his contemporaries. He found themes in his own time and in folklore, and his work is often high-spirited, though the narrative may be sombre. In the Five Icelandic Painters exhibition at the Georg Kleis gallery in 1920, Muggur showed 80 pieces: collages, drawings, watercolours, prints, puppets and embroidery. He also worked in oils, pastels, and made drawings in ink, pencil and chalk. The Icelandic Art Exhibition at Charlottenborg in 1927 included 38 works by Muggur, some of which had previously been shown in the Five Icelandic Painters exhibition in 1920. Muggur died in 1924, at the age of only 32. While he cannot be deemed to have played a major role in Icelandic art history, his versatility and modern attitude assure him a special place.