their development in the 17th and 18th centuries. In this period the magnificent wood carving of the dwellers in the Gudbrandsdal and the vivid ’rose-painting’ motifs created by Telemark peasant artists were at their finest phases. These beautiful and essentially national crafts have since been revived, and are once more being pursued with all the artistry and sense of form and colour that is a characteristic of the Norwegian peasant craftsman. Associations for Home Arts and Crafts have been established throughout the country. In every town of any importance there is a shop of the Association stocking the products of the craftsmen. Brukskunst is the name given to the movement to bring about a creation of style and beauty and individuality in all forms of domestic objects, based upon the dictum that no piece of furniture or fabric or any utensil need be crude and ugly merely because it is an item destined for prosaic utility. The handle of a cup, the post of a stair may just as easily be shaped gracefully as left ‘angular and stark. The Brukskunst movement dates only from 1918, but it has made wide progress all over Norway and been responsible for several exhibi- tions in the leading cities. The movement has now its own permanent headquarters in Oslo, where in the Kunstnernes Hus (The Artists’ House) there is a permanent exhibition of the best examples of Norwegian home arts and crafts. 182