Lago Maggiore

The most westerly of the three biggest subalpine lakes, the second biggest behind Lake Garda, situated on the border between Italy and Switzerland. Grieg visited this picturesque area in 1884, on his way back from Rome to the North with his wife and friends, following the happy conclusion to a marital crisis which the previous year had led the two artists to split and after Grieg’s long tour of the Netherlands and Germany, with the intention of reaching Paris, where the 26-year-old Leis Schjelderup, whom he had met in Hardanger, was studying painting. The split with his wife, lasting almost half a year, was brought to an end thanks to the mediation of Frants Beyer. Following that journey, in an access of creative inspiration, Grieg wrote From Holberg’s Time. Suite in the Old Style, Op. 40.