The History of Kurbits Painting

The Dala horse's colourful design, fancy oil painting, is a simplified form of kurbits painting. This colourful painting distinguishes itself through exaggerated richness of detail and was painted on walls, cupboards, chests and Mora clocks in the areas around Siljan.

The interest for this decoration increased when people began to brick in fireplaces in the small one or two roomed wooden cottages. Earlier the fireplace was an open hearth situated in the middle of the room and this meant that the walls became rather sooty. It can actually be said that the fireplace and chimney paved the way for the newly awakened taste for decoration and increased the possibilities for a new market.

The kurbits paintings places of origin
The painting started in Leksand and Rättvik around 1780 and during the 19 th century it was even practised in Mora. The trade was carried out by church decorators, school teachers, soldiers etc, but sometimes because of different kinds of disability, people chose painting as a way of earning a living.

The typical kurbits looks like a vase which explodes into firework display of flowers and petals, the painters were self taught using a style which was both charmingly naïve and colourful.

The Dala painters and the church
People visited their parish church regularly because they were forced to. Since the Middle Ages the churches were decorated with stories from the Old Testament on the walls and the vaults. The language of pictures was a very important detail in preaching, since at this time the ability to read was just about non-existent amongst the farming people. The Dala painters were extremely influenced by the visual arts of the churches and often chose subjects from the bible when they decorated the country people's homes – often the figures from the bible were dressed in the folk costumes of the area.

Jonas and the kurbits
The word kurbits means calabash, pumpkin and is according to the author Svärdström, taken from the Bible and the book of Jonas, chapter 4. Once upon a time Jonas` adventure was one of the most enjoyed stories from the Old Testament, probably because he had such an exciting life and amongst other things was swallowed by a whale during a storm. After three days in the whale's stomach he was thrown out on to land and saved. Jonas preached the gospel in the city of Nineve and while he was by his hut God created a calabash for him to protect him from the burning sun ……. “and Jonas became very joyful over the calabash”(Book of Jonas 4:6).

The symbolism in the story of Jonas makes room for several interpretations, some people thought that Jonas was a kind of premature, very human Jesus, who doubted his own ability and would rather flee than follow the demands of others. His stay in the whale's stomach for example was for three days, the same amount of time Jesus spent in the Kingdom of the Dead before he rose again.

The amount of text in Jonas` book is only 1.5 thousandth of the whole Bible and yet the story is often depicted on church walls and later even in Dala paintings.

The word kurbits in the Bible tradition
The word “kurbits” was changed in the 1903 translation of the Bible to “castor oil “bush. In his book Svardström deplored that by doing this a tradition of several centuries (1541 Wasa Bible) disappeared. That the word was changed depended on the fact that the Hebrew documentation was used for a basis for translation instead of the Greek Septuagint.

In 1995 Liljegren at Grannas A Olsson exchanged correspondence with the Bible Commission and its secretary Christer Åsberg about the change of word. Liljegren wondered if because of tradition the new version could take in the word kurbits again. Among other things Åsberg answered …..” in an official Bible translation it's not so easy to choose the word that will sound the best. What is against the word “kurbits” is not least that it has such a special meaning for the Dala painting. It's no longer a botanical plant for the Swedish readers. But we'll think about it again……”

Six years later, in 2001, a letter arrived at Grannas A. Olsson in which Christer Åsberg explained that the Bible Commission had decided to take in the word kurbits again for the new translation. . He finished his letter with: “Your care and interest in this has thus led to that the old term has been reverted to in the Swedish Bible tradition.”

We can thank Martin Luther for choosing the Greek Bible for his translation. Just think if he had chosen the Hebrew – then we perhaps would have had a Dala painting called “Castor oil bush” not particularly stimulating for the imagination!

How would the Dala painters would have depicted that flower. Who knows how history would have proceeded…….

Kurbits Painting becomes Dalahorse-pattern
Stikå Erik Hansson (1823 – 1897) from the village of Ryssa, was the only Dala painter of class in Mora. In 1837 it was noted in a parish catechetical meeting list that he had become disabled because of a pelvis fracture. In spite of his difficult handicap Stick Erik was able to support himself and his family by painting kurbits.

The Risa painter was famous for painting very beautiful wooden horses with a fancy painting technique, that is to say a simple form of kurbits. He has also been given the honour of being the first to use the two colour technique, that is to say two colours at the same time on the one brush. At the same time as Stikå Erik Hansson was Vik Olof Hansson who learnt the painting technique from the Risa painter. Vik Olof was the maternal grandfather of Karin Nisser (1883 – 1947) who after marriage moved to Vattnäs.

The family Nissers Dala horses are today coveted collectors´ items, and Karin's talent with both the knife and paint brush was extraordinary. Around the turn of the 20 th century the village Vattnäs became the centre for the Dala horse production mostly because of the Nisser family´s ability to vary form and design.

Tools and colours
Formerly the colours were bought in sticks which were then carefully broken down on a “runner”. The finely grated pigment was then mixed with oil. Eventually powder paint could be bought and today ready mixed oil colours in tubes can be bought.

Further back in time the brushes were made by the painter himself. The absolute best brushes were made from the bristles from squirrels' tails. The last squirrel brushes were used at Grannas A. Olsson in the 1940s.

Today marten and synthetic brushes are used.