Northern Lakes

Scenes that have a more northerly feel

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As much as Margit liked to include water in her paintings, a number of her creations don’t seem to be inspired by local landscapes.

Some lakes look like they’re from Minnesota’s Boundary Waters area. Others resemble lakes in New England. The one consistency is that they don’t look like any lakes in Margit’s SE Minnesota. (Note: Many of the scenes from the Water with canoe theme could belong here too.)

Northern Minnesota lake?

  • ID: 72-20 “North woods”
  • Detail: 16″ x 20″ / Orig cost: $15 / 1st owner: R&F Nowland
    With a name like “North woods”, it’s clear Margit was envisioning a location “up nort” from her part of the state. Was this painting (and others like it) inspired by a photo? If so, it’s clear she departed from it, since her “North woods” paintings vary.

  • ID: 73-09 “North woods & lake cabin”
  • Detail: 16″ x 20″ / Orig cost: $15 / 1st owner: R Jore
    For this “North woods”, Margit shrunk the lake from the previous year’s painting by beefing up the trees on the far shoreline. But it’s still a dirt path up to a cozy cabin.

    Note that it’s not typical for Margit to include stumps and fallen limbs in her paintings. Usually her “woods” have a park-like appearance. Not so here.

Boundary Waters?

  • ID: 71-41 “Lake summer & birch”
  • Detail: 16″ x 20″ / Orig cost: $15 / 1st owner: G Bakken

    The pines and sprawling waters in this painting could be mistaken for Minnesota’s Boundary Waters area. There’s no “cozy cabin” here—or any sign of man.

Michigan lake?

  • ID: 74-05 “Late summer water & birches”
  • Details: Dimensions = 18″ x 24″ / Orig price = $20 /
  • 1st owner: Edna Nowland
  • 2nd owner: J. Nowland
  • 3rd owner: R. Briggs

    Margit doesn’t say where this scene is of, but some in the family that received this painting called it “Michigan Birches” because that’s what it reminded them of.

New England lake?

For Margit’s next paintings (below), compare them with a postcard she had of New Hampshire (at right).

From the position of the birches to the wall of piled stones, it’s clear she was inspired by the picture she kept among her papers. But what’s more interesting, of course, is pondering why the artist deviated in places for her depiction.

postcard
  • ID: 74-__ “…”
  • Details: 16″ x __” / Orig price: $__ /
  • 1st owner: ___

  • ID: 74-__ “…”
  • Details: 16″ x __” / Orig price: $__ / 1st owner: ___

  • ID: 74-15 “Colorfull fall & water”
  • Details: 16″ x 20″ / Orig price: $15 / 1st owner: D. Lee

    This landscape, with its sizeable lake and peaked horizon has more of a look of New England. Margit was known to paint from picture postcards, and she had several in her possession with features that could be imagined here.

  • ID: 74-__ “…”
  • Details: 16″ x __” / Orig price: $__ / 1st owner: ___

    Another attempt at the scene depicted above.