• Jan Terje Rafdal
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  • Added 09 Jun 2009
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Fredric Feline, 1632. Painted by student of Fiigen

The Oromys Order. This blog is by Per Formansen, manager of the The Norwegian State Gallery of Federal Feline Art. Oil on thick wooden board. 23,7 x 28,5 cm. Three o´clock in the morning, last sunday, my mobile telephone woke me up accompanied by the winding sound of my wife´s expression of dislike of the unpleasant "crazy cat" tune I recently uploaded to my cell. The display showed a long line of numbers instantly telling me this was a call from some foreign country. I managed to kill the obnoxious sound and whispered a "Hello, Formansen speaking" My head pounded of terrible headache from yesterdays party at the The Norwegian State Gallery of Federal Feline Art, and was stung by the over exited voice of my curator colleague Reinert Føhn. "Per, I have made the most extraordinary discovery" He cried. He then told me about the discovery of a collection of art from the Cat Era, probably the most important find since the Kjell O. Dahls street collection found in 1968. In an Old town House in Boston, currently being demolished, a series of small paintings on thick wooden boards was discovered under the wallpaper. All the pieces was apparently portraits with a coat of arms included on the board. Together with the paintings, a few passages from the original diary of Felix Fiigenschou was found. Following the event of the original diary being lost from the National Library, there has been a thorough investigation determined to recover this lost document. So far without any success. However, this section is not from the diary that once belonged to the National Library as the passage was torn out of the book not long after being written. The diary notes tell us about how Fiigenschou got the commission to create a large series of portraits of the members of the Oromys Brotherhood. The Oromys brotherhood (Also know as The Oromys Order) started in the late 1500´s as a hunting club, but evolved into a gentleman´s club through the 1600´s. Fiigenschou was offered a substantial sum of money for taking the commission. During this period, Fielix was facing some serious financial difficulties, making this an offer he could not turn down. However, he had to finish twenty paintings in two weeks! Felix had to acknowledge his student and studio assistant Robin von Gerthe, and let him join in on the task of making the deadline. Gerthe seem to have taken advantage of this situation and managed to get his signature on some of the pieces, very much to Fiigenschou´s dislike. The Oromys Brotherhood did not like anyone to take notes of their existence, and forced Fiigenschou to tear out the pages from his diary, hence the separation of this segment from the rest of the document· The first piece to be presented from this series, is a portrait of Fredric Feline, signed by Robin von Gerthe. This is the first time a signed work by anyone from the circle of Fiigenschou is presented! The first piece to be presented from this series, is a portrait of Fredric Feline, signed by Robin von Gerthe. This is the first time a signed work by anyone from the circle of Fiigenschou is presented! More pieces from this series will be posted soon. Sold.

2 Comments

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Jarmila Sabo 09 Jun 2009

I am absolutely thrilled with this piece!

Emily Reed 09 Jun 2009

I JUST LUV THIS!