Portrait of the Painter Oda Krohg, b. Lasson
- Artist: Christian Krohg
- Creation date: 1888
- Object type: Painting
About
The laughing, vivacious Oda is depicted en face with hands-on-hips. Oda Engelhart (née Lasson), who at this point in time was Christian Krohg’s bride-to-be, is portrayed in a simplified style, with few details and with vibrant reds and blues as the dominating colours. Our attention is drawn toward the woman’s spirited, joyous face and gaze that meet us head on. She is dressed for the summer with a short-sleeved, low-necked red blouse. It is a cheerful portrait of a strong, self-assured, and independent woman aged 28: her clothes and loosely hanging hair signal a relaxed spontaneity that lets the viewer understand that this was not a commissioned portrait.
The portrait gradually became an emblem for the so-called “bohemian princess” Oda. Edvard Munch played a part in this interpretation of the picture by paraphrasing it in his etching The Kristiania Bohemians II (1895), in which Oda figures in the same posture and with the same attire, but where she is surrounded by “her” men.
Oda Engelhart became a student of Krohg’s in January 1884, at which time she was separated from her first husband Jørgen Engelhart and living alone with their two children. The teacher and student would soon become romantically involved. When Krohg painted the portrait, they had known each other for four years, and it is fair to say it was not a bohemian princess he saw or wanted to portray, but rather a beautiful, charming young woman who had already become the mother of the first child they had together (Nana, b. 1885) and whom he more than anything else wanted to marry. The painting was painted outdoors on a summer’s day in Hvitsten in 1888, only a few months before the couple married.
Text: Vibeke Waallann Hansen
Artist/producer
Christian Krohg
Visual artist, Author, Journalist, Jurist
Born 1852 in Vestre Aker, death 1925 in Oslo
Christian Krohg, one of the great Norwegian painters of the Realist movement, was a champion of justice and freedom of expression. Krohg painted members of the working class in the Kristiania of the 1800s with empathy and a desire for change.
His family expected him to practise law, like his father, but he wished to become an artist. Christian Krohg managed both. After completing his legal studies in Kristiania (now Oslo) he went to the art academy in Karlsruhe to study art. When many of the younger Norwegian art students travelled from Karlsruhe to Munich for further study, Krogh followed his teacher, Karl Gussow, to Berlin. His encounter with the metropolis awakened his social conscience, sparking a life-long focus on social issues.
Skagen
Krohg’s stay in the small village of Skagen, Denmark, in 1879 left a lasting impression. Most of the artists who flocked to Skagen went to capture the landscape and the light. Krohg, however, chose to paint the people who lived there and the simple lives they led. He forged especially close ties with the Gaihede family, and painted many motifs depicting their everyday lives. We see the family’s eldest members, Ane and Niels Gaihede, slicing bread, mending fishing nets or resting. Their children and grandchildren are portrayed while sleeping, braiding hair or keeping watch over a sick child. Krohg returned to Skagen several times.
Slumbering seamstresses
One of Krohg’s earliest socially targeted motifs is his depiction of the seamstress who has fallen asleep while working. In a number of versions he has portrayed a young girl who has been up sewing an order all night, and has fallen asleep at her sewing machine. We meet the seamstress again in one of Krohg’s most important projects, his story about Albertine. Krohg painted several scenes from Albertine’s life that were based on stories he had heard and people he had encountered.
In Kristiania
In the early 1880s a group of young artists, writers and intellectuals began to gather in the cafés of the nation’s capital. They were rebelling against the prevailing social structure, and held loud discussions on morals, sex, drugs and free love. Krohg and writer Hans Jæger were the leading figures in this group of “Kristiania bohemians”. The members of the group were active in the press, as poets and as novelists, and Krohg and Jæger founded the newspaper Impressionisten (The Impressionist). It was there that Jæger presented his nine commandments, the rules of life for a good bohemian. One of the group’s members was Oda Engelhart, who married Krohg in 1888. Christian and Oda Krohg were the parents of artist Per Krohg and the grandparents of artist Guy Krohg.
Krohg was a prolific artist who explored a broad range of motifs. His many portraits are especially worth noting. He could portray Prime Minister Sverdrup or a small, bashful lad sitting on a spindleback chair with equal attention to detail. He was in great demand as a portrait artist due to his ability to evoke the character of his subjects.
From 1901 to 1909 Krohg lived mainly in Paris, where he taught at Académie Colarossi. Inspired by the new trends of the time, Krohg changed his precise, realistic style to an approach characterised by more diffused shapes and looser brushstrokes. His motifs featured artist’s models more prominently than previously. When Norway’s first art academy was opened in 1909, Krohg served as its first director and professor, a position he held until his death in 1925.
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