"The Husband who was to Mind the House" - Research and Moodboard

The Husband who was to Mind the House is set on a 17th Century Norwegian farm. After reading the text I had a few ideas in my head what I imagined the stage to look like, but for further research I took a trip to the National Gallery to study paintings of the time. I was also looking for paintings which helped capture the tone of the play, or even just ones that captured how the characters might have lived. This trip was taken as part of the syllabus from the summer course I participated in.

National Gallery - Paintings to Inspire

The below paintings are all ones which I was able to observe while visiting the National Gallery. Each of these have given me different insight into the time period the text is set, and also helped to contribute to the design I already had in mind. There are more paintings which I saw that inspired me, but the three below are my favourites. The others have been put into a mood board at the bottom of this post.

Anna and the Blind Tobit - Rembrandt

La Fontaine (The Water Cistern) - Jean-Siméon Chardin

A Farm with a Dead Tree - Adriaen Van De Velde

Moodboard

After my research trip to the National Gallery I looked to other sources for inspiration. I have collected the images from the gallery with my other sources into a mood board, which is below.

My initial thoughts for the piece are to use handmade and natural surfaces and textures within the design, in order to display a working farm in the 17th Century on stage. I have reflected this within my mood board, which will act as initial inspiration for my design process.