Queen Sonja of Norway arrived in Málaga, Spain, bearing two kinds of grief. Two months after King Harald V's death, the 89-year-old made her first international trip since becoming a widow, traveling to Pablo Picasso’s hometown to inaugurate the Munch-Picasso exhibit at the Museo Picasso Málaga. Before she said a single word about art, though, she addressed the tragedy in Spain.
© Europa Press via Getty Images“Allow me, first of all, to say that I was deeply saddened to learn of the terrible train accident that took place yesterday near Toledo," she said, as reported by our sister website HOLA! Spain. "My thoughts are with those who have lost their loved ones, with their families and friends, and with all those affected by this tragic event.”
She offered her sympathy to the country hosting her: “I would like to express my heartfelt condolences and my deepest sympathy to everyone who is grieving at this very difficult time.”
The Toledo crash occurred on the morning of Wednesday, when two trains collided on the Madrid-Seville line. According to the latest figures, over 70 people were killed. Out of respect for the victims, the Málaga evening was scaled back, and the gala dinner planned to follow the opening was canceled.
© SOPA Images/LightRocket via GettThe ceremony got underway around 8 p.m., and while the mood was understandably subdued, the queen used her moment at the podium to speak about something close to her heart: art, and the two masters who have shaped her life.
Munch-Picasso brings together more than 100 works by Edvard Munch and Pablo Picasso, on loan from museums and collections in Norway, France and Spain, staging what organizers describe as an imaginary dialogue between both painters. The show is the result of a collaboration between the Munch Museum in Oslo and the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso (FABA), with support from Fundación Unicaja, and runs through February 28.
Few royals could have opened it with more authority. Sonja is a working artist in her own right, a printmaker whose passion for the visual arts led her to found the Queen Sonja Print Award.
She spoke about both painters with genuine intimacy. “In Norway, we learn about Munch from an early age, and his art has been a constant companion throughout my entire life, both personally and in my official capacity. So while Munch has been a constant presence, Picasso has made his way into my home from time to time and, perhaps, even into my own work,” she said. From Picasso to Munch, and from Norway to Spain, art proves that “the deepest conversations know no borders or generations.”
Queen Sonja turns a new leaf
© Det Norske KongehusetIt was a quietly poignant message from a woman whose own life has just been redrawn. King Harald, Europe’s longest-reigning monarch at the time of his death, died on August 28 at age 89, after 35 years on the throne. His son succeeded him as King Haakon VIII, and Sonja has since become one of the new king’s most steadfast sources of support.
Her position has shifted, too. While she's retained her title as queen, she is no longer styled "Her Majesty." Officially, she is now kongemor, or “the King’s mother.”
The royal house itself now consists of King Haakon, Queen Mette-Marit and their daughter, Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra.
Still, as Málaga made clear, the queen mother isn’t stepping out of public life. Her calendar is adapting, step by step, to a new role just off-center from palace life. For her first trip abroad in that role, Sonja chose a setting that spoke to her roots, her art, and, on a night of national sorrow in Spain, her instinct for compassion.
© Getty Images
