To close out the Vesterheim exhibit, Herbjørn Gausta, 1854-1924, join Vesterheim on fascinating historical day trips around southeast Minnesota and northeast Iowa to explore Gausta’s life and art in the actual places he lived, studied, and worked!

The first tour, on April 18, will leave Decorah by bus and travel to Harmony, Minnesota, to see the community Gausta lived in and where he is buried. We will visit several southeast Minnesota churches to view Gausta’s art, stopping for lunch at the Norseland Cafe in Rushford before returning to Decorah.

The second tour, on April 25, will leave Decorah by bus to visit the Washington Prairie Lutheran Church parsonage. We’ll explore the collection of Gausta art at Luther and several churches in northeast Iowa that house Gausta altar paintings.

Sign up for one or both by contacting Vesterheim Coordinator of Tours to Norway Rolf Svanoe at 563-382-9681 or NorwayTours@vesterheim.org.

Koren Parsonage by Herbjørn Gausta, late 1880s. 

Gausta stayed with Rev. U.V. and Elisabeth Koren at the Washington Prairie Lutheran Church parsonage in rural Decorah, Iowa, while a student at Luther College in 1886-1887. The people in the painting are probably William, Lala, and Marie, the youngest Koren children.

Vesterheim 1979.102.003 – Gift of the estate of Elsa Naeseth.