Erik Theodor Werenskiold (11 February, 1855 – 23 November, 1938) was a
NorwegianNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
painterPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
and
illustratorAn illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
. He is especially known for his drawings for the
AsbjørnsenPeter Christen Asbjørnsen was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe were collectors of Norwegian folklore...
and Moe collection of
Norske FolkeeventyrNorwegian Folktales is a collection of Norwegian folktales and legends by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. It is also known as Asbjørnsen and Moe, after the collectors....
, and his
illustrationAn illustration is a visualization such as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that stresses subject more than form. The aim of an illustration is to elucidate or decorate textual information by providing a visual representation.- Overview :Illustrations can:* give faces to...
s for the Norwegian edition of the Snorri Sturlason
HeimskringlaHeimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
.
Erik Werenskiold was born in Granli gaard, 8 km southeast of Kongsvinger. He lived his first four years here with his family, until they moved to Kongsvinger, and he started his studies in 1872.
Erik Theodor Werenskiold (11 February, 1855 – 23 November, 1938) was a
NorwegianNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
painterPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
and
illustratorAn illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
. He is especially known for his drawings for the
AsbjørnsenPeter Christen Asbjørnsen was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe were collectors of Norwegian folklore...
and Moe collection of
Norske FolkeeventyrNorwegian Folktales is a collection of Norwegian folktales and legends by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. It is also known as Asbjørnsen and Moe, after the collectors....
, and his
illustrationAn illustration is a visualization such as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that stresses subject more than form. The aim of an illustration is to elucidate or decorate textual information by providing a visual representation.- Overview :Illustrations can:* give faces to...
s for the Norwegian edition of the Snorri Sturlason
HeimskringlaHeimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
.
Erik Werenskiold was born in Granli gaard, 8 km southeast of Kongsvinger. He lived his first four years here with his family, until they moved to Kongsvinger, and he started his studies in 1872. Based on advice from the painter
Adolph TidemandAdolph Tidemand was a Norwegian painter who was born in Mandal in 1814. At this time there were no art schools in Norway, so he moved to Copenhagen, Denmark at the age of 18 to attend the art academy. He studied there for five years and then began a journey to Italy to study further...
, he attended a college for painters, and in the autumn of 1875 he went to
MünichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
where he stayed for four years. Inspired by
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
paintings of nature and the
naturalistNaturalism in art refers to the depiction of realistic objects in a natural setting. The Realism movement of the 19th century advocated naturalism in reaction to the stylized and idealized depictions of subjects in Romanticism, but many painters have adopted a similar approach over the centuries...
movement, Werenskiold moved to
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1881 to continue his studies.
In 1883 Werenskiold returned to Norway. He made several paintings of peasants in landscapes, as well as
portraitA portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a...
s of celebrities like
Bjørnstjerne BjørnsonBjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson was a Norwegian writer and the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. Bjørnson is considered as one of "The Great Four" Norwegian writers; the others being Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie, and Alexander Kielland...
and
Henrik IbsenHenrik Johan Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as the "father of modern drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre. His plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when Victorian values of family...
. Illustrations for Norwegian fairy tales had interested him since his time in Munich, and he now got the opportunity to illustrate Norwegian fairy tales together with
Theodor KittelsenTheodor Severin Kittelsen was a Norwegian artist. He is one of the most popular artists in Norway. Kittelsen became famous for his nature paintings, as well as for his illustrations of fairy tales and legends, especially of trolls.-Biography:Kittelsen was born in the coastal town of Kragerø in...
.
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