Boat in Grindavík

Gunnlaugur Scheving, born in 1904, became one of Iceland’s best-known painters of the 20th century. He grew up in east Iceland, living in the fishing town of Seyðisfjörður in his youth, and again for some years on his return from art studies abroad. Gunnlaugur held his first art show at the age of 17 in Reykjavík, having received art lessons from sculptor Einar Jónsson and artist Guðmundur Thorsteinsson (Muggur). He studied art in Copenhagen 1923–29, then returned to live in Iceland in 1930. He found subjects for his art all over the country, and in 1939–47 he made extensive stays in Grindavík in the southwest, where he developed an artistic style which was manifested inter alia in monumental paintings of life at sea. He held many solo shows, and took part in group exhibitions in Iceland and elsewhere. In 1972, for instance, he was one of two artists representing Iceland at the Venice Biennale.