Kunstnerviften
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Artists:
- Hans Heyerdahl
- Thorolf Holmboe
- Fredrik Kolstø
- Otto Sinding
- Gustav Lærum
- Gerhard Munthe
- Hans Gude
- Jacob Bratland
- Axel Ender
- Asta Nørregaard
- Eilif Peterssen
- Elisabeth Sinding
- Karl Uchermann
- Severin Segelcke
- Christian Skredsvig
- Amaldus Nielsen
- Carl Fredrik Sundt-Hansen
- Christian Krohg
- Creation date: 1898
- Object type: Painting
Artists/producers
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Thorolf Holmboe
Visual artist, Decorative artist, Goldsmith, Illustrator, Painter
Born 10.05.1866 in Vefsn, death 08.03.1935 in Oslo
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Otto Sinding
Visual artist, Painter, Illustrator
Born 1842 in Kongsberg, death 1909 in München, Tyskland
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Gerhard Munthe
Visual artist, Painter, Drawing artist, Architect
Born 1849 in Skanshagen, death 1929 in Lysaker, Norge
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Asta Nørregaard is best known for her portraits. She painted a number of portraits of upper-class society members, both men and women. Her more complex figure compositions are perhaps less known, such as the altarpiece in Gjøvik Church (1883) or Julenattsmesse i et fransk kloster (Christmas Night Mass Celebrated in a French Nunnery) (1888–89).
Nørregaard grew up in a military officer's family in the Norwegian capital. She began studying at Bergslien's art school at the age of twenty. She was a student of Eilif Peterssen in Munich from 1875 to 1878 and later studied in Paris. She wanted to specialise in portraiture, though she also painted several landscapes and figure compositions. Nørregaard completed a number of formal portraits on commission.
Portraits of the upper class
The women in upper-class society were particularly keen to have Nørregaard paint their portrait, though she often painted husbands and wives together as a family. Nørregaard most often portrayed women using pastels, while men were portrayed in oil. She also often used pastels when portraying children.
Nørregaard's portraits are often characterised by a strong realism. The viewer is likely convinced that the model looked exactly like the portrait.
A provocative altarpiece
Nørregaard's most prestigious assignment was the altarpiece of Gjøvik Church. The church was designed by architect J. W. Nordan and inaugurated in 1882. The motif of the altarpiece is the comforting Christ, and the composition is dominated by a standing Christ figure. The altarpiece was painted in Paris. It was not well received when it arrived in Gjøvik in 1883; the image of Christ was considered too small and insignificant. As a result, Nørregaard had to change the composition and enlarge the figure of Christ. Nørregaard felt disheartened by this, but at least the congregation in Gjøvik was satisfied.
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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.