Skip to content

Kjarvalshvammur

Egilsstaðir

A peaceful little haven, located at road 94 beside the Selfljót river south of Ketilsstaðir farm on the way out Héraðsflói. Here still stands a small cabin and a boathouse both of which belonged to Iceland´s master painter Jóhannes S. Kjarval (1889 -1972). When this master painter had spent two summers here a tent, just before 1950, the farmer at Ketilsstaðir presented him the piece of land in question and built the cabin which still stands. 

This was the only real estate Kjarval ever owned. He often stayed here for extended periods, producing some of his most famous paintings.  The boathouse still shelters Kjarval´s little dinghy on which he descended the river out to sea, sailing as far as the village of Borgarfjörður Eystri 1957.