Bernt Tunold

A steamboat frequently visited the island, carrying passengers to the mainland or Bergen, later serving as the first part of a poor peasant's journey to America.

The family farm, which Tunold depicted in several of his works, had, according to the census of 1875, three cows, one bull, a dozen sheep and a few goats.

[6] At the time of Tunold's childhood, only the ruins of the monastery, a tower 14 meters high and low walls, still remained.

The church contained most of the art present on the island: most likely, the first paintings Tunold had a chance to study were the altarpiece and the portraits of the priests Claus and Peder Frimann.

The population was doubled, and the city's wooden houses were largely replaced with high, "continental" style brick buildings.

Tunold was one of the many emigrants in Bergen from Sogn og Fjordane; in fact, in 1900, a third of the city's population were immigrants from the surrounding rural districts.

However, there are many indications that Tunold found it difficult to accept the requirements of discipline at the school, and he was forced to quit after only two years.

Olav Rusti, one of its leaders, had lived in a German monastery for eleven years, having previously belonged to the Norwegian artistic community in Munich.

Tunold made several journeys in western Norway in the last 25 years of his life, leaving his family in order to paint landscapes, portraits, still lives and interiors.