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The following commentary is by Jean Woods, former director, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD.
The canvas was painted southwest of the village of Olden, Norway on Skarstein, which is
situated on the Nordfjord. The viewer can see the village and fjord in the background with its
distinctive Old Church, which often appears in the artist's works. Illustrated as #40 in De Vries.
Pictured in the 30 January 1915 New York Evening Post article about Folsom Gallery exhibition.
Exhibited in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Exhibition, namely "Very sane and full of
poetic suggestiveness appears an all together dignified painting by William H. Singer, "The
Birches, well composed, interesting in composition, and where the technique while thoroughly
competent does not obtrude itself on the visitor. "
The artist's home, Dalheim, is to the northeast of this hillside. He built his studio here in
1914 and it is a region where he frequently painted en plein air from that time until his death
during the Nazi occupation of Norway.
The birches are one of Norway's most beautiful trees and often appear in Singer's
canvases and pastels. A winter view of this scene, entitled The Peace of Sleeping Nature, oil
canvas, 39 3/4 × 31 3/4", was given in 1931 to the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts by
R. Bruce Carson.