The Lord is My Shepherd

One of Margit’s favorite religious themes

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As a woman of strong faith, Margit created a lot of paintings on which she included the 23rd Psalm. Well, at least the first line of the verse: “The Lord is My Shepherd”. Not surprisingly, these paintings feature sheep. But the shepherd is only suggested.

The shepherd is not personified but presented as a spiritual presence in nature that leads the sheep beside the still waters.

Dr. Marion Nelson in “The Three Landsverks” (1990)

Margit drew two distinctive styles of Shepherd paintings. Although she only used the first part of the 23rd Psalm, we could further distinguish these two by other parts of the verse:

  1. He leadeth me beside the still waters
  2. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness

Still Waters

Here the sheep are grazing alongside a placid lake. It’s as if even when they’re not moving out of danger (as in “Paths of Righteousness”), they still need looking after.

  • ID: 69-44 “The Lord is My –“
  • Detail: 22″ x 28″ / Orig price $20 / 1st owner: M Gaustad
  • Comment: The backdrop is very typical of a Margit painting, with rolling hills and a farmstead in the distance. The sheep barely make an entrance in the lower right.

  • ID: 69-41 “Lake birch sheep”
  • Details: 18″ x 24″ / Orig price: $15 / 1st owner: Laurel Oian
  • Comment: Again the sheep don’t seem central to the painting, until the quotation draws them out. Here the landscape could be elsewhere than Minnesota. No farms are evident, and the hills in the distance are almost mountains.

    Note: Even though these are “still waters”, Margit includes a very effective rippling of the surface to break up the lake’s reflection.

    Is like 72-12 “The Lord is my shepherd” 20×32 ($30) Tenius Moen

Paths of Righteousness

In contrast to “Still Waters”, here the sheep are coming from a distance, often from a place veiled in fog or backlit with sun. This is Margit’s more common style, where the foreground has pronounced shadows that the unseen shepherd, supposedly, is guiding the sheep through.

  • ID: 64-02 “Lord is my shepherd”
  • Detail: 18″ x 24″ / Orig price: gift / 1st owner: Rev Braaten
  • Comment: It’s unusual for Margit to include a straight line, as seen in the “roadway” here, that’s perpendicular to the frame. Margit rarely included such rigidity when flowing, curving lines would do (as in later iterations of this scene).

  • ID: 64-32 “The Lord is my shepherd”
  • Details: 22″ x 36″ / Orig price: $12 / 1st owner: J Heiden
  • Comment: The sheep often look like they’ve just seen something ahead—like they’ve just spotted you watching them. Hmm, do you stand in their way?

  • ID: 64-37 “The Lord is My Shepherd”
  • Detail: 18″ x 24″ / Orig price: gift / 1st owner: R&F Nowland
  • Comment: Even if the sun is shining somewhere, a mountain and deep forests present obstacles to the sheep so that you wouldn’t want the herd out there without oversight.

    See also 73-18 “The Lord is My Shepherd” (16×20) (gift) R&FN

  • ID: TBD [The Lord is My Shepherd]
  • Detail: x / x / x
  • Comment: Here, dark clouds cast a threatening air over the distant lands that the flock is coming from. The trees too look dark and foreboding.

    This painting may be unique among Margit’s. It has a typo. And yes, Margit was embarrassed when it was pointed out she had misspelled “shepherd”. But the buyer didn’t want it fixed.

  • ID: 67-24 “The Lord is My –“
  • Detail: 18″ x 22″ / Orig price: $10 / 1st owner: H Larson
  • Comment: This scene has become so familiar to Margit (and to her clients too?) that she must no longer feel it necessary to include the words on her painting.

  • ID: 68-13 “The Lord is my–“
  • Details: 18″ x 22″ / Orig price: $15 / Initial owner: Rev Lee
  • Comment: Unlike other livestock animals, sheep weren’t plentiful in Margit’s area. She couldn’t look out the window when needing a model. Then again, they kind of look like her white cat Doo-Doo. Hmm, is this the cat picture we’ve been looking for?

  • ID: unk “The Lord is my shepherd”
  • Details: large / Orig price: $__ / Initial owner: Unknown
  • Comment: This was purchased at a charity rummage sale (provenance TBD) and gifted to Bells Coulee Lutheran Church (rural Bangor WI) in 2025 by a church member who recognized the “M. Mindrum” signature. Bells Coulee is where Margit’s son-in-law Ron Nowland served as “interim” supply pastor from 1985 to 2008.