Erik Werenskiold

Biography

In 1879 an exhibition of French painting was held in Munich, and Werenskiold, then twenty-four, saw Daubigny there. The German studio with its carefully arranged light no longer seemed to him the only possible way to work.

He was born on 11 February 1855 in Eidskog, at the Granli farm southeast of Kongsvinger. Four years later the family moved to Kongsvinger, and he grew up in the fortress: his father, Captain Frederik Daniel Werenskiold, was its commandant, and Erik was the fourth son. He attended the national school in Kongsvinger and, in 1869–72, the private Latin school run by Aars and Voss in Christiania (now Oslo). He began studying painting in 1872. On the advice of the painter Adolph Tidemand, in 1873 he enrolled at the drawing school in Christiania, where he studied under the sculptor Julius Middelthun, and in the autumn of 1875 he worked briefly in Axel Ender’s studio. In the same year, 1875, he left for Munich and stayed there four years. Illustrations for Norwegian fairy tales already occupied him then. In the spring of 1880 his right arm was paralysed; after half a year of treatment and rest in Switzerland, Upper Bavaria and the Tyrol, his health returned fully. In 1881 Werenskiold went to Paris, where he lived until 1883, then returned to Norway and spent his summers in Telemark. In 1884–85 he was in France again, and in 1888–89 he studied with Léon Bonnat. According to some accounts, in 1882 he took part, with Frits Thaulow and Christian Krohg, in organising the first Norwegian national exhibition, known as the Autumn Exhibition; other sources say he came home only in 1883, so the date needs checking. In 1886 he hosted the artists’ colony known as the Fleskum summer.

Fairy tales brought him his widest fame. In 1879 he illustrated the collection of folktales by Asbjørnsen and Moe, and then, together with Theodor Kittelsen, he made the drawings for the three volumes of the “Adventure Tales for Children” (1882–87). In 1910 these drawings were gathered into a separate deluxe edition. Norwegian critics noted in them a distinctive blending of reality and fantasy, and I think this is what explains their long life: his trolls live in a real Norwegian forest.

Later he led the work on the illustrations for the popular edition of Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla (1896–99). Christian Krohg, Halfdan Egedius, Gerhard Munthe, Eilif Peterssen and Wilhelm Wetlesen also took part. He also made drawings for Jonas Lie’s novel “The Family at Gilje” (1903 edition).

In the 1880s and 1890s naturalism clearly influenced him; later he moved away from it and drew closer to newer currents in Norwegian painting. He painted peasants against landscapes and portraits of well-known people: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Henrik Ibsen and many other contemporaries. For Fridtjof Nansen’s villa Polhøgda at Lysaker he created wall paintings on the theme of the fairy tale “Little Kjersti”, and he also designed lock fittings for doors.

His wife, Sophie Marie Stoltenberg Thomesen (1849–1926), was also a painter. Their son Werner became a geologist, and Dagfin, who followed in his father’s footsteps, became a painter and sculptor.

From 1908 Werenskiold received the state artist’s stipend. He first received the Order of St Olav in 1890 and in 1935 was awarded its Grand Cross. His drawings and portraits have often been reproduced on Norwegian postage stamps, among them “Telemark Girls”.

He died on 23 November 1938. He is buried at Vår Frelsers gravlund (Our Saviour’s Cemetery) in Oslo.