Hans Gude
Norwegian painter (1825–1903)
Hans Fredrik Gude (March 13, 1825 – August 17, 1903) was a Norwegian romanticist painter and is considered along with Johan Christian Dahl to be one of Norway's foremost landscape painters. He has been called a mainstay of Norwegian National Romanticism. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.
Gude's artistic career was not one marked with drastic change and revolution, but was instead a steady progression that slowly reacted to general trends in the artistic world. Gude's early works are of idyllic, sun-drenched Norwegian landscapes which present a romantic, yet still realistic view of his country. Around 1860 Gude began painting seascapes and other coastal subjects. Gude had difficulty with figure drawing initially and so collaborated with Adolph Tidemand in some of his painting, drawing the landscape himself and allowing Tidemand to paint the figures. Later Gude would work specifically on his figures while at Karlsruhe, and so began populating his paintings with them. Gude initially painted primarily with oils in a studio, basing his works on studies he had done earlier in the field. However, as Gude matured as a painter he began to paint en plein air and espoused the merits of doing so to his students. Gude would paint with watercolors later in life as well as gouache in an effort to keep his art constantly fresh and evolving, and although these were never as well received by the public as his oil paintings, his fellow artists greatly admired them.
Gude spent forty-five years as an art professor and so he played an important role in the development of Norwegian art by acting as a mentor to three generations of Norwegian artists. Young Norwegian artists flocked to wherever Gude was teaching, first at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf and later at the School of Art in Karlsruhe. Gude also served as a professor at the Berlin Academy of Art from 1880 to 1901, although he attracted few Norwegians to the Berlin Academy because by this time Berlin had been surpassed in prestige in the eyes of young Norwegian artists by Paris.
Over the course of his lifetime Gude won numerous medals, was inducted as an honorary member into many art academies, and was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav. He was the father of painter Nils Gude and watercolorist and illustrator Agnes Charlotte Guide. His daughter Sigrid married German sculptor Otto Lessing.
Early life.
Gude was born in Christiania in 1825 the son of Ove Gude, a judge, and Marie Elisabeth Brandt.
Gude began his artistic career with private lessons from Johannes Flintoe, and by 1838 he was attending Flintoe's evening classes at the Royal School of Drawing in Christiania. In the autumn of 1841 Johan Sebastian Welhaven suggested that the young Gude should be sent to Düsseldorf to further his education in the arts.
Academy of Art in Düsseldorf.
At the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf Gude encountered Johann Wilhelm Schirmer – a professor in landscape painting – who advised him to give up his ambitions of being a painter and to return to his regular studies before it was too late. Gude was rejected by the academy, but attracted the attention of Andreas Achenbach who provided him with private lessons.
As a student.
Gude was finally accepted into the academy in the autumn of 1842 and joined Schirmer's landscape painting class where he made quick progress. The landscape painting class at the academy was new at the time, having been founded in 1839 as a counterpart to the more long standing figure painting class. At the time figure painting was considered a more prestigious genre than landscape painting as it was thought only through painting the human body could true beauty be expressed.
Gude, along with most of the class of twelve, received a grade of "good" his first semester and was described as "talented". On his report card for the 1843–44 school year he was the only student to be described as "very talented", and the report for his fourth year said that he "paints Norwegian scenery in a truthful and distinctive manner".
While Gude was a student, two different trends in landscaping were developing at the academy: a romantic trend and a classical trend. The romanticists depicted wild, untamed wildernesses with dark forests, soaring peaks, and rushing water to capture the terrifying and overpowering aspects of nature. They used rich, saturated colors with strong contrast of light and shadow. The classicists were more interested in recreating landscapes from the heroic or mythical past and often set them in the midst of religious or historical events. The classicists focused on lines and clarity in their compositions. It was through Achenbach – Gude's first teacher upon arriving in Düsseldorf – that he was exposed to the romanticist tradition, while it was through his classes with and later time teaching for Schirmer that he was exposed to the classicist traditions.
In 1827 Schirmer and Carl Friedrich Lessing founded a Society for Landscape Composition that would meet a few times each year at Schirmer's home where Schirmer would offer advice on the composition of landscape paintings. Fifteen years later Gude began attending the meetings of the society with other students from his class, but as he progressed to greater levels of realism Gude began to make it clear that he did not agree with the ideas of composition Schirmer put forward during the meetings, saying specifically:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />I painted a large mountain view for which my studies of the Rondane Mountains provided the subject, and I had severe problems because Schirmer did not approve of the realistic rendering, and his suggestion that I should group the mountains more in accordance with the Classical ideal was impossible for me to accept.
In Düsseldorf Gude met Carl Friedrich Lessing who, while initially aloof, became Gude's friend and colleague. Their relationship was such a close one that Gude's eldest daughter eventually married one of Lessing's sons. The two artists differed in style though, with Lessing painting dramatic, historical works while Gude never once introduced historical events into his own paintings.
Gude served as a student teacher at the academy until 1844, before leaving to live in Christiania. On July 25, 1850, Gude married Betsy Charlotte Juliane Anker (1830–1912), the daughter of General Erik Anker, in Christiania (today called Oslo).
Professorship.
In 1854 Gude was appointed the professor of landscape painting at the academy replacing his former teacher Schirmer. Gude was twenty-nine when appointed, making him the youngest professor at the academy. His appointment was partially political, in a conflict between Rhineland and Prussian interests Gude was seen as a neutral candidate because of his Norwegian roots. Gude was recommended for the position by the current Director of the academy Wilhelm von Schadow, but only after Andreas Achenbach, Oswald Achenbach, and Lessing had refused the post due to lack of suitable pay. In regards to his position and compensation, Gude wrote:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />About this post of professor I can only say I cannot comprehend why I should not accept pay for being a teacher, since I really have to have pupils. All those who wished that I should be their teacher are here, and poor as church mice. If I become professor, they can now enter the Academy. I will in any case be here for many years, so I might just as well paint in a studio twice as big and grand as any private one, especially if I receive a salary into the bargain. When I become tired of it, I can always hand in my notice.
Throughout his tenure, Gude had private pupils in addition to his normal classes. As a professor Gude taught six hours of class, held two hours of office hours, took turns with other professors supervising the nude drawing class and attended staff meetings. In 1857 Gude handed in his resignation, officially citing family considerations and failing health as his reasons for resigning, although in his memoirs he blamed opposition and backbiting from two of his pupils. The landscape painting professorship was the bottom of the pay scale at the academy, and Gude was one of the few professors to be refused a raise when others received them in 1855. Others have suggested that Gude wished to leave the academy for fear for becoming stuck in a rut artistically. Gude received better treatment from the academy after he turned in his resignation, and it would take him a full five years to finally leave Düsseldorf. Although professors at the academy complained that their teaching prevented them from undertaking more lucrative endeavors, Gude was able to sell enough works to afford a modest house in Düsseldorf which stood in what is now Hofgarten.
Norwegian or German art.
By the mid-19th century the academy in Düsseldorf had become a center for training Norwegian artists, but within Norway there arose a debate as to whether the art was truly Norwegian as it did not originate in Norway, and was in fact produced by artists who had been trained in Germany. The debate was sparked by proposals to build an art school in Norway, and it was therefore essential for supporters of a Norwegian academy to argue that Norwegian values could not be instilled in the artists if they had to go abroad.
In a letter to Jørgen Moe Gude writes that he see possibility for his own development in Düsseldorf, and that even if it would cause him to be known as a German artist instead of a Norwegian, he would not be ashamed of the fact. In defense of Norwegian artists at the academy, Gude writes that they were not simply imitating German artists:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />If we learn something from Achenbach and Lessing, it is certainly not to our detriment; no one has ever said about me or Tidemand or, so far as I know, any of us Norwegian Düsseldorfers that we copy and imitate.
Gude was convinced that for Norwegian artists at the academy it was impossible to escape their heritage and that Norway influenced their art whether they wanted it to or not. On this subject he wrote:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />[...] and you, my compatriots in Norway, have no grounds for complaining that we have forgotten the dear, familiar and specific character with which God has endowed our land and our nation. That is so firmly entrenched in our being that it finds expression, whether we like it or not. Do not, therefore, insult us further with such [an accusation]; it hurts our feelings, and thereby proves how unfounded it is, for otherwise it would be easy to treat it with indifference.
Von Schadow however argued the Gude's art was in fact German in an attempt to defend his nomination of Gude to succeed Schirmer. He wrote of Gude that "His education is totally German, his style unwontedly elevated."
Wales.
Many of Gude's peers moved on from the academy in Düsseldorf to other art institutes, but Gude decided to seek more direct contact with nature. Gude had gained a foothold in the British art market in the 1850s after his works were accepted into the galleries of Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere and the Marquess of Lansdowne, and so when an English art dealer and former student of Gude – Mr. Stiff – suggested Gude might find success in England, he was quick to respond. In the autumn of 1862 Gude set off for the Lledr Valley near Conwy. Wales, a place renowned for its picturesque scenery, was already home to a colony of British plein-air artists. While small groups of artists living in the countryside in order to inspire each other, be closer to their subject and escape the city were common, Gude was one of the first Norwegian artists to live in such a manner. Gude rented a house overlooking River Lledr where he painted one of the ancient Roman bridges which was popular with artists of the time.
Gude reports that the British and Welsh landscape painters were disdainful of artists from the continent, and that they used a very different style of painting from the continental artists. Whereas Gude and fellow continental artists would go out in nature and make sketches to act as studies for studio works, the British and Welsh painters set up their easels in the field and worked on their paintings with their subjects in front of them. Gude attempted to improve his reputation among the local painters with exhibitions at the Royal Academy's spring shows in London in 1863 and 1864, but both were flops that Gude described as "useful but bitter medicine". Despite these setbacks – furthered by the strain the trip had put on Gude's finances due to lack of paintings being sold – Gude felt the trip was of great benefit to himself as an artist, writing to his brother-in-law Theodor Kjerulf:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />It was sad to leave the lovely yet wild scenery that had become so dear to us, and a peaceful, quiet home it had been. My English stay was of great benefit to me in that I freed myself from many of the prevailing studio maxims by being alone and in a landscape so new to me that it forced me to observe more keenly.
While in Wales Gude was visited by Adolph Tidemand together with Frederik Collett, and the three traveled to Caernarvon and Holyhead from which Gude observed his first real Atlantic storm.
Baden School of Art.
In December 1863 Gude was offered and accepted a professorship at the Baden School of Art in Karlsruhe where he would once again succeed Schirmer, and so he left Wales. Gude was hesitant to take the position as he felt that it was working for the enemy but was unable to support himself in Norway due to the lack of an art school. He wrote about his thoughts on the position to Kjerulf, stating:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />At this time I feel oppressively and profoundly what it means to float about the world without a mother country – now I have obtained a post, and shall serve to the best of my powers the country that may shortly be at open war with my own native land; I shall express no sympathies and be deaf to what goes on beyond the walls of my own studio; that which makes hearts at home beat faster will not exist for me; and how offensive and unbearable it will be to watch the enthusiasm displayed around me for the rights of a German nationality, while my own nation perhaps bleeds to death in a struggle for existence. On the other hand, how serious my commitments are to my wife and children; and I shall use my talents where I am permitted to – at home I can make no use of them, and in two to three years I would come to the end of my career and sink into deep misery with all my children – I am sure of that.
It is suspected that Gude was offered the professorship due to a recommendation from Lessing. When Gude accepted the position at Karlsruhe the flow of Norwegian painters to the Düsseldorf Academy redirected to Karlsruhe, which would produce many of the Norwegian painters of the 1860s and 1870s, among them Frederik Collett, Johan Martin Nielssen, Kitty L. Kielland, Nicolai Ulfsten, Eilif Peterssen, Marcus Grønvold, Otto Sinding, Christian Krohg and Frits Thaulow.
In Karlsruhe Gude continued to faithfully reproduce the landscapes he saw, a style that he passed on to his students by taking them to Chiemsee to paint the lake "en plein air". While on these trips Gude and his pupils often encountered Eduard Schleich the Elder with his own students from Munich who were, as Gude described, only out to capture the mood of the scene and were skeptical of the advantages of painting in the sunshine. Gude also took special interest in how light reflected in water while in Karlsruhe, as well as expanding his study of the human figure. Although Gude rarely portrayed humans for their own sake, he began populating his paintings with convincing, if sometimes anatomically incorrect, individuals.
Gude's painted "Fra Chiemsee" while at Karlsruhe. The painting which was shown in Vienna was so enthusiastically received that it was purchased by the Kunsthistorisches Hofmuseum for display, won Gude a number of medals, and earned him membership in the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
The school in Karlsruhe was founded by the Grand Duke of Baden whom Gude had good relations with. Because of this fact Gude received better pay than at the Düsseldorf Academy, had spacious and rent-free accommodations and was given generous periods of leave which allowed him to travel in the summer to perform studies for future paintings. Gude served as the director of Karlsruhe from 1866 to 1868 and again from 1869 to 1870, where he introduced several of his own educational principles designed to develop pupil's individual talent. But Gude's reign as director at Karlsruhe was not without resistance to his methods, and it is this opposition that he cites as his reason for visiting the Berlin Academy of Art that as early as 1874 in search of better conditions. Because of Gude's visits to Berlin, his relation with the Grand Duke became strained as the Grand Duke felt that the concessions he had made to Gude were so great that Gude should be grateful and not look for a professorships elsewhere. Gude remained at Karlsruhe for six more years after his first visits to the Berlin Academy of Art, but in 1880 he decided to retire from the Karlsruhe school to take up a position in Berlin.
Berlin Academy of Art.
In 1880 Gude accepted a position to lead the master studio in landscape painting at the Academy of Art in Berlin, a position which gave him a spot on the academy's Senate. The Senate was responsible for upholding "all the artistic interests of the state" and membership was a mark of the highest official recognition of Gude's work.
In 1895 the Christiania Art Society held a comprehensive retrospective of Gude's works including his paintings, oil studies, watercolors, sketches and etchings. When asked what should be shown at the exhibition Gude replied that "[...]perhaps room could be found for studies and drawings; I rather think that these will meet with interest. They are also (unfortunately) of greater artistic value." By the time of the exhibition Gude had abandoned his previous style of painting large-scale compositions based on studies, and was working in mediums other than oil. In Berlin Gude began working more heavily in gouache and watercolor in an effort to preserve the 'freshness' of his art. Although Gude did not heavily exhibit his watercolors they still gained admiration from follow painters, including Harriet Backer who said:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />I believe that if Gude exhibited watercolours and study drawings, he would have the warmest admirers among painters. [...] Let it rather happen now, while there can be controversy and a row and some lively discussion about his art[...].
Gude would spend a few weeks each summer near the Baltic coast where he drew material for numerous paintings of Ahlbeck and Rügen. Although Gude filled these paintings with more figures than his earlier works, his focus was still on accurately capturing the scene and especially the landscape.
As the century drew to a close the established art academies faced 'secession' movements from groups of artists looking to branch of into different style. Gude rallied around his friend Anton von Werner in defending the academies, going so far as to mock "the so-called Symbolism" movement. As Gude approached the end of his life he felt more and more unable to keep up with the changes in the art world. After a disappointing exhibition in Kristiania in 1902 Gude wrote to Johan Martin Nielssen:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />All I have heard about it [the exhibition] are your and [Wilhelm] Holter's letters, and that acclaim has consoled me after the scorn I have had to suffer in common with many an elderly artist. You recognized several studies from my portfolios, but all of them were more or less unfinished, and over the last two winters I finished them, truly "con amore". I had serious scruples when I decided to exhibit them, because I knew full well how different the opinion of the modernists is, and it is quite understandable that they want to 'take the helm' alone!
In 1880 Gude had between five and eight students, but this number had shrunk to two or three by 1890. In part this reduction of pupils was due to a lack of interest in the Berlin academy, as explained to Gude by Prince Eugén, Duke of Närke who wrote that he, as well as numerous other young artists, had more of a taste for French art than German.
Gude retired from the Berlin Academy in 1901. He died two years later in Berlin in 1903.
Awards and honors.
Gude was also a member of the Order of the Zähringer Lion, Order of the Red Eagle, and the Order of Franz Joseph.
Academy memberships.
Gude earned membership in the following art academies:
Notes.
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Nødhavn Ved Norskekysten
Painting by Hans Gude
Nødhavn Ved Norskekysten (English translation: Port of Refuge on the Norwegian Coast or Norwegian Harbor of Refuge) is a painting by Norwegian romanticist painter Hans Gude completed in 1873.
Exhibition history.
The painting was first shown at the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873 where it won a gold medal. It was later displayed at an international exhibition of art at the Academy of Art in Berlin in 1896 while Gude was a professor at the Academy, and yet later still it was shown in Dresden in 1904, the year after Gude's death.
Scene and style.
The painting shows a realistic rendering of a storm hitting a Norwegian harbor, with a brig stranded in the distant breakers. The painting is divided into a foreground, where women and children watch the rescue effort; a middle ground, where various moored ships bob in the strong waves; and a background, where wavelike rocks enclose the refuge point and bring the eye down to the stranded brig. The colors used are predominantly the blue-grey of the sea and the beige of the reflections on the sea which serve to unify the piece. Various elements of the scene including the waterfront buildings, the groups of figures, and the departing rowboat, would be reused by Gude in later works.
Ownership.
In 1875, the painting was purchased by the Bremen Art Society, although Gude incorrectly identifies them as the Stadtgalerie Bremen in his notes about the sale. In 1907 the painting was transferred to the Kunsthalle Bremen. In 1920 the painting was auctioned off due in part to changing tastes in art and the painting's large size () which made it difficult to store. In 1932 the painting was auctioned off again in Oslo where it was purchased by its current owner.
References.
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Johan Nordhagen
Norwegian artist (1856–1956)
Johan Nordhagen (23 March 1856 – 28 August 1956) was a Norwegian painter, graphic artist, educator and school administrator.
Childhood.
Johan Nordhagen was born in Veldre in the Ringsaker municipality of Hedmark, Norway. He was the son of Ole Johansen (1816–73) and Ahlis Hansdatter Nordhagen (1830–91). He grew up in Nordhagen on a farm called Flisaker. His father was from Grue, and was of Finnish descent. He worked as a cartwheel-maker. His mother was from Veldre. He grew up in poverty. Nordhagen drew a lot in his childhood, and was often told to do something useful instead. It was just a coincidence that Nordhagen in his youth made contact with persons who helped him making a career in art. Around the age of 17 he came to Kristiania (now Oslo) and started working in the bookstore of the Luther Foundation ("Lutherstiftelsen").
Training.
People noticed his talent for drawing, and it was arranged that he should study at the Royal School of Drawing with sculptors Julius Middelthun and Mathias Skeibrok. Later he was employed by the Norwegian Mapping and Cadastre Authority (then known as "Norges Geografiske Oppmåling") as lithographer and terrain drawer. He won two scholarships, including the Houens legat in 1887, which enabled him to travel to study abroad, first to Copenhagen and then to Paris. In Norway there was no art printing expertise so a committee was established to work towards establishing a study of graphic art at the Arts and Crafts School ("Kunst- og håndverksskolen"). Nordhagen's background in lithographic portraits and etching, made him the obvious leader and teacher of this education. In 1897 he got a substantial grant from the Parliament of Norway to go to Germany from 1898–99 to train under Karl Köpping (1848-1914) at the Royal Academy of the Arts in Berlin.
Career.
On 1 October 1899 the class for etching at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry was established. Nordhagen was the school director for the next 20 years. In 1908, he was one of the co-founders of the Norwegian Association for Graphic Art.
Nordhagen is one of the few to have received the King's Medal of Merit ("Kongens fortjenstmedalje") from two different kings. He received the first (in silver) from King Oscar II of Sweden in 1892, and (in gold) from King Haakon VII of Norway in 1929. He also received several medals and recognition from exhibitions around the World. In his later years he often visited Veldre, where he had a vacation house until 1937. Even after selling that, he often visited acquaintances in the community to make sketches and studies for later artistic work. Nordhagen had an enormous graphic production (lithography and etchings), but also drawings and paintings, his artistic and productive career spanned over 80 years.
Personal life.
In 1882, he married Christine Magdalene Brochmann Johansen (1858–1933). He was the father of botanist Rolf Nordhagen and architect Olaf Nordhagen as well as the grandfather of art historian Per Jonas Nordhagen. He died on 28 August 1956, 100 years old.
Legacy.
Many of Nordhagen's motifs were from Ringsaker and Veldrebygda including portraits of both famous and unknown persons, of local community originals, clothing, work situations, interiors and building customs. In 1988, the Veldre Historical Society ("Veldre Historielag") published a richly illustrated book on the graphic artist Nordhagen in which the author describes the artist's adolescence and artistic life. The society has also over the years acquired quite a lot of etchings and one big painting from Nordhagen's substantial production. Some of Nordhagen's motifs have been also published as postcards.
References.
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Christian Christensen (artist)
Norwegian artist
Christian Christensen (1898–1977) was a Norwegian artist.
He was born in Århus, and was a brother of Arent Christensen. His main styles were city and landscape portraits. He is represented in the National Gallery of Norway.
References.
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Svenum Jensen Vævestad
Norwegian farmer and politician
Svenum Jensen Vævestad (6 April 1849 – 21 June 1898) was a Norwegian farmer and politician for the Liberal Party.
Vævestad was born and raised on Vevestad, a family farm in the parish of Gjerstad in Aust-Agder, Norway. He was a member of the council board in Gjerstad (1882-1897) and was council treasurer (1893-1897). He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament in 1897, representing the constituency of Nedenes Amt (now Aust-Agder). He only served one term.
References.
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Anna Schønheyder
Anna Schønheyder (28 August 1877 – 11 April 1927) was a Norwegian painter and textile artist.
Biography.
She was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway to Diderik Christian Sommerschild Schønheyder and Marie Kathinka Maurer, and was married to engineer Wilhelm Andreas Hartmann.
She trained at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry under Johan Nordhagen during 1900 and in the period 1905–09. She was a student of Harriet Backer and Oluf Wold-Torne and in 1903–04 with Viggo Johansen and Joakim Skovgaard. Schønheyder made her debut at the Autumn Exhibition at Oslo in 1902.
She is represented in the National Gallery of Norway with the paintings "Vågå kirke før gudstjenesten" (c.1906) and "Pikekammeret på Lye i Vågå" (c.1907).
References.
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Jan Thomas Njerve
Norwegian painter
Jan Thomas Njerve (7 June 1927 – 17 November 2014) was a Norwegian painter.
He was born in Eidanger, and was married to opera singer Kari Frisell. He attended the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts from 1946 to 1948, and also trained abroad. He is known as a landscape painter, among others with the work "Spansk landskap" (1960) owned by the National Gallery of Norway, and as a portrait painter, among others of Olav V of Norway and Harald V of Norway.
References.
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Tycho Jæger
Norwegian painter (1819–1889)
Tycho Christoffer Jæger (25 June 1819 – 31 January 1889) was a Norwegian painter.
Biography.
Tycho Christoffer Jæger was born in Bergen as a son of the first cousins, shoemaker Tycho Christoffer Jæger and Øllegaard Jæger. He was an uncle of Henrik Jæger. From September 1870 he was married to Bergithe Steendahl (1850–1932).
He painted between 1841 and 1889, almost exclusively landscapes. He studied partly in Copenhagen, in the 1840s. He also travelled in Norway, Denmark and Sweden, and lived in Bergen and Leikanger after taking his education. "Norsk biografisk leksikon" called two of his paintings "among the most peculiar to be created in contemporary Norwegian art".
References.
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Ole Christian Andersen Nøstvig
Norwegian farmer and politician
Ole Christian Andersen Nøstvig (10 June 1782 – 3 June 1852) was a Norwegian farmer and politician.
Nøstvig was born in the Velfjord parish in the traditional district of Helgeland in Nordland, Norway. He was the son of Anders Knudsen Nøstvig and Inger Olsdatter. He took over the family farm in 1804 and farmed throughout life.
He was mayor of Brønnøysund for several years dating from 1838. He was a deputy representative in 1827 and was elected to the Norwegian Parliament in 1830, 1833, 1836, 1842 and 1845, representing the rural constituency of "Nordlands Amt" (now Nordland).
References.
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Tone Thiis Schjetne
Norwegian sculptor
Tone Thiis Schjetne (19 July 1928 – 2 September 2015) was a Norwegian sculptor. She is represented in the National Gallery of Norway and other galleries, contributed several works to the Nidaros Cathedral, and made decorations to Vadsø Church. Among her best known public works is the bronze sculpture "Go'dagen" in Oslo, Trondheim and Stavanger.
Personal life.
Schjetne was born in Oslo, Norway to architect Helge Thiis (1897–1972) and painter Greta Swenborg Thiis (1896–1982). Her grandfather was museum director Jens Thiis (1870–1942). Her aunt Ragna Thiis Stang (1909–1978) was a historian. Her elder sister Aina is a ceramist, who was married to sculptor Kristofer Leirdal from 1947. Schjetne was married to physician Per Gunnar Schjetne; they settled in Sandnessjøen and had three children.
Career.
Schjetne was a student of Kristofer Leirdal at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art from 1946 to 1947. She trained under Per Palle Storm at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts in 1947-49 and with Einar Utzon-Frank at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.
She debuted at the Autumn Exhibition (Høstutstillingen) in Oslo in 1950. For many years she was sculptor at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. She is represented in the National Gallery of Norway and other galleries. She contributed a sculpture of Saint Peter the apostle at Vadsø Church in Finnmark. Her public works include "Høylandsfrisen" (1975) at the Sandnes City Hall, the bronze bust honoring the poet and novelist Tarjei Vesaas (1986) in Åmot in Vinje, and the sculptures "Klovn" and "To klovner" (1992) at Grønlands torg in Oslo.
Her most widely recognized work is the bronze statue "Go'dagen" (1980) which appears in Stavanger and Trondheim. The sculpture was modeled after Anna Kornelia Holm (1885–1962) who had worked as a maid and in retirement was frequently seen at Torvet, Trondheim's market square,
where her standard greeting was go' day ("Go'dagen").
Schjetne was awarded the Lorch-Schives legat in 1954 and the Conrad Mohrs legat in 1956. She was awarded the Ingeborg og Per Palle Storms ærespris in 2001 and made a Knight 1st Class in the Order of St Olav in 2004.
References.
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Halvdan Ljøsne
Norwegian painter (1929–2006)
Halvdan Ljøsne (31 May 1929 in Vågå, Oppland – 6 February 2006) was a Norwegian painter.
He was born in Vågå. He took his education at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry from 1949 to 1950, the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts from 1950 to 1953 (under Aage Storstein and Jean Heiberg) and the Academie Ranson from 1953 to 1954. He worked as a lecturer at the Norwegian Institute of Technology from 1958 to 1967. He was then a professor at the National Academy of Fine Arts from 1967 to 1983, serving as rector from 1974 to 1977. He is represented with nine works in the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design.
He settled at Haslum, and died in February 2006.
References.
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Frederik Petersen
Norwegian painter
Frederik Kastrud Petersen (9 November 1759 – 22 August 1825) was a Norwegian painter known primarily for his portraits.
Biography.
Petersen was born at Ringebu in Oppland, Norway. His father, Peter Kastrud (1732–1799) was a woodcarver and rosemaler from Fåberg. He received his first art instruction working with his father in Gudbrandsdalen and Østerdalen; learning decorative and figure painting. In 1788, with financial support from Bernt Anker, he was able to go to Copenhagen and study with Jens Juel at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. After completing his studies, he returned to Norway, although Juel had advised him to travel abroad. He continued to work for his father and Anker, copied works by the Old Masters, and often stayed in Christiania (now Oslo).
In 1799, he settled in Tønsberg where he took citizenship in 1803. In addition to oil paintings, he did much of what would now be called "handicraft" work, as the concept of painter-as-artist was not yet established in Norway. His social status must have been high, however, because he was one of the citizens who participated in choosing a local representative to serve in the Norwegian Constituent Assembly of 1814.
He moved to Strømsø in 1816 and received citizenship there as a Master Painter in 1821. In addition to his canvases, he did altarpieces at Sør-Fron Church and Sandar Church in Sandefjord. He died during 1825 in Drammen.
Personal life.
He was married in 1792 to Siri Olsdatter Bierke (1767–1837). Their son, Peter (1794–1858), also became a portrait painter.
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Ørnulf Opdahl
Norwegian painter and educator (born 1944)
Ørnulf Opdahl (born 5 January 1944) is a Norwegian painter and educator. He was born in Ålesund. He is represented in several art collections, including the National Gallery of Norway, Bergen Art Museum and the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art. He was appointed professor at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts from 1985 to 1992.
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Aasmund Nordstoga
Norwegian musician, singer and composer
Aasmund Nordstoga (born 26 August 1964) is a Norwegian musician, singer and composer from Vinje, Telemark. He made his solo debut in 2009 with the album "Ein visefugg", an album for which he was nominated for the Spellemannsprisen award. He released the record "Livet er godt" with lyrics by Aasmund Olavsson Vinje being a collaboration with his younger brother, Odd Nordstoga,
Aasmund Nordstoga comes from a musical family. His mother, Ellen is a folk singer and his father, Olav Nordstoga is a folk singer, lyricist, and causer. He is also related to Kåre Nordstoga, a musician from Notodden.
He received the Nynorsk User of the Year award in 2014.
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Synnøve Korssjøen
Norwegian goldsmith (born 1949)
Synnøve Korssjøen (born 20 June 1949) is a Norwegian goldsmith.
She was born in Røros Municipality to Petter Korssjøen and Solveig Sommer, and resides in Trondheim. She studied at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry from 1967 to 1970, and again in 1990/91. Her jewellery is typically inspired from nature, such as insects, plants and animals, and often contains vitreous enamel. She is represented at the Norwegian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, the Danish Museum of Art & Design, and in museums in Bergen and Trondheim (Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum).
She has designed the SKUP Award (shaped as a cube) awarded for excellent investigative journalism along with the prize money.
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Nils Hansteen
Norwegian painter (1855–1912)
Nils Severin Lynge Hansteen (27 April 1855 – 11 October 1912) was a Norwegian painter. He was known principally for his landscape painting as well as his marine art, often featuring ships in a stormy seas.
Life and work.
Nils Hansteen painted in a naturalistic style, with motifs from marine and forest environments. His art is on exhibit at a number of public art museum throughout Norway including Trondheim Kunstmuseum, as well as the Kunstforening in Drammen and the Kunstmuseene in Bergen. Two of his paintings, including "Snøtykke" (1890), are owned by the National Gallery of Norway.
Nils Hansteen was born in Mo i Rana, in the county of Nordland, Norway. He first attended a technical college in Trondheim to study mechanical engineering. He subsequently attended the Bergslien School of Art where he studied under Knud Bergslien and Morten Müller during 1873 and with Peder Cappelen Thurmann at the Royal Drawing and Art School. He later studied under Hans Gude in Karlsruhe (1876 to 1877) where Gude led him into marine painting and greatly influenced his artistic development. He later lived in Munich (1877–1880) and Italy (1880–1881). In 1881, he came back to Norway, and was resident in Christiania (now Oslo) until his death, except the period 1887 to 1892 when he stayed in Copenhagen. Was a member for Norway of the exposition committee at Nordic Exhibition of 1888.
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External links.
 Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

Norway
Country in Northern Europe
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of Norway. Bouvet Island, located in the Subantarctic, is a dependency, and not a part of the Kingdom; Norway also claims the Antarctic territories of Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land. Norway has a population of 5.6 million. Its capital and largest city is Oslo.
Norway has a total area of . The country shares a long eastern border with Sweden, and is bordered by Finland and Russia to the northeast. Norway has an extensive coastline facing the Skagerrak strait, the North Atlantic Ocean, and the Barents Sea.
The unified kingdom of Norway was established in 872 as a merger of petty kingdoms and has existed continuously for years. From 1537 to 1814, Norway was part of Denmark–Norway, and, from 1814 to 1905, it was in a personal union with Sweden. Norway was neutral during the First World War, and in the Second World War until April 1940 when it was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany until the end of the war.
Harald V of the House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway. Jonas Gahr Støre has been Prime Minister of Norway since 2021. As a unitary state with a constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the parliament, the cabinet, and the supreme court, as determined by the 1814 constitution. Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels: counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have a certain amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament and the Finnmark Act. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States. Norway is a founding member of the United Nations, NATO, the European Free Trade Association, the Council of Europe, the Antarctic Treaty, and the Nordic Council; a member of the European Economic Area, the WTO, and the OECD; and a part of the Schengen Area. The Norwegian dialects share mutual intelligibility with Danish and Swedish.
Norway maintains the Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system, and its values are rooted in egalitarian ideals. The Norwegian state has large ownership positions in key industrial sectors, having extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, and fresh water. The petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). On a per-capita basis, Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas outside of the Middle East. The country has the fourth- and eighth-highest per-capita income in the world on the World Bank's and IMF's list, respectively. It has the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, with a value of US$1.3 trillion.
Etymology.
Norway has two official names: "Norge" in Bokmål and "Noreg" in Nynorsk. The English name Norway comes from the Old English word "Norþweg" mentioned in 880, meaning "northern way" or "way leading to the north", which is how the Anglo-Saxons referred to the coastline of Atlantic Norway. The Anglo-Saxons of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as "Norðmanna land".
There is some disagreement about whether the native name of Norway originally had the same etymology as the English form. According to the traditional dominant view, the first component was originally "norðr", a cognate of English "north", so the full name was "Norðr vegr", "the way northwards", referring to the sailing route along the Norwegian coast, and contrasting with "suðrvegar" "southern way" (from Old Norse suðr) for (Germany), and "austrvegr" "eastern way" (from austr) for the Baltic.
History.
Prehistory.
The earliest traces of human occupation in Norway are found along the coast, where the huge ice shelf of the last ice age first melted between 11,000 and 8000 BC. The oldest finds are stone tools dating from 9500 to 6000 BC, discovered in Finnmark (Komsa culture) in the north and Rogaland (Fosna culture) in the southwest. Theories about the two cultures being separate were deemed obsolete in the 1970s.
Between 3000 and 2500 BC, new settlers (Corded Ware culture) arrived in eastern Norway. They were Indo-European farmers who grew grain and kept livestock, and gradually replaced the hunting-fishing population of the west coast.
Metal Ages.
From about 1500 BC, bronze was gradually introduced. Burial cairns built close to the sea as far north as Harstad and also inland in the south are characteristic of this period, with rock carving motifs that differ from those of the Stone Age, depicting ships resembling the Hjortspring boat, while large stone burial monuments known as stone ships were also erected.
There is little archaeological evidence dating to the early Iron Age (the last 500 years BC). The dead were cremated, and their graves contained few goods. During the first four centuries AD, the people of Norway were in contact with Roman-occupied Gaul; about 70 Roman bronze cauldrons, often used as burial urns, have been found. Contact with countries farther south brought a knowledge of runes; the oldest known Norwegian runic inscription dates from the third century.
Viking Age.
By the time of the first historical records of Scandinavia, about the 8th century, several small political entities existed in Norway. It has been estimated that there were nine petty realms in Western Norway during the early Viking Age. Archaeologist Bergljot Solberg on this basis estimates that there would have been at least 20 in the whole country.
In the Viking period, Norwegian Viking explorers discovered Iceland by accident in the ninth century when heading for the Faroe Islands, and eventually came across Vinland, known today as Newfoundland, in Canada. The Vikings from Norway were most active in the northern and western British Isles and eastern North America isles.
According to tradition, Harald Fairhair unified them into one in 872 after the Battle of Hafrsfjord in Stavanger, thus becoming the first king of a united Norway. Harald's realm was mainly a South Norwegian coastal state. Fairhair ruled with a strong hand and according to the sagas, many Norwegians left the country to live in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and parts of Britain and Ireland.
Haakon I the Good was Norway's first Christian king, in the mid-10th century, though his attempt to introduce the religion was rejected. Norse traditions were replaced slowly by Christian ones in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. This is largely attributed to the missionary kings Olaf I Tryggvasson and Olaf II Haraldsson (St. Olaf). Olaf Tryggvasson conducted raids in England, including attacking London. Arriving back in Norway in 995, Olaf landed in Moster where he built a church which became the first Christian church in Norway. From Moster, Olaf sailed north to Trondheim where he was proclaimed King of Norway by the Eyrathing in 995. One of the most important sources for the history of the 11th century Vikings is the treaty between the Icelanders and Olaf II Haraldsson, king of Norway circa 1015 to 1028.
Feudalism never really developed in Norway or Sweden, as it did in the rest of Europe. However, the administration of government took on a very conservative feudal character. The Hanseatic League forced royalty to cede to them greater and greater concessions over foreign trade and the economy, because of the loans the Hansa had made to the royals and the large debt the kings were carrying. The League's monopolistic control over the economy of Norway put pressure on all classes, especially the peasantry, to the degree that no real burgher class existed in Norway.
High Middle Ages.
From the 1040s to 1130, the country was at peace. In 1130, the civil war era broke out on the basis of unclear succession laws, which allowed the king's sons to rule jointly. The Archdiocese of Nidaros was created in 1152 and attempted to control the appointment of kings. The church inevitably had to take sides in the conflicts. The wars ended in 1217 with the appointment of Håkon IV Håkonsson, who introduced clear laws of succession.
From 1000 to 1300, the population increased from 150,000 to 400,000, resulting both in more land being cleared and the subdivision of farms. While in the Viking Age farmers owned their own land, by 1300, seventy per cent of the land was owned by the king, the church, or the aristocracy, and about twenty per cent of yields went to these landowners.
The 14th century is described as Norway's golden age, with peace and increase in trade, especially with the British Islands, although Germany became increasingly important towards the end of the century. Throughout the High Middle Ages, the king established Norway as a sovereign state with a central administration and local representatives.
In 1349, the Black Death spread to Norway and within a year killed a third of the population. Later plagues reduced the population to half the starting point by 1400. Many communities were entirely wiped out, resulting in an abundance of land, allowing farmers to switch to more animal husbandry. The reduction in taxes weakened the king's position, and many aristocrats lost the basis for their surplus. High tithes to church made it increasingly powerful and the archbishop became a member of the Council of State.
The Hanseatic League took control over Norwegian trade during the 14th century and established a trading centre in Bergen. In 1380, Olaf Haakonsson inherited both the Norwegian (as Olaf IV) and Danish thrones (as Olaf II), creating a union between the two countries. In 1397, under Margaret I, the Kalmar Union was created between the three Scandinavian countries. She waged war against the Germans, resulting in a trade blockade and higher taxation on Norwegian goods, which led to a rebellion. However, the Norwegian Council of State was too weak to pull out of the union.
Margaret pursued a centralising policy which inevitably favoured Denmark because of its greater population. Margaret also granted trade privileges to the Hanseatic merchants of Lübeck in Bergen in return for recognition of her rule, and these hurt the Norwegian economy. The Hanseatic merchants formed a state within a state in Bergen for generations. The "Victual Brothers" launched three devastating pirate raids on the port (the last in 1427).
Norway slipped ever more to the background under the Oldenburg dynasty (established 1448). There was one revolt under Knut Alvsson in 1502. Norway took no part in the events which led to Swedish independence from Denmark in the 1520s.
Kalmar Union.
Upon the death of King Haakon V in 1319, Magnus Eriksson, at just three years old, inherited the throne as King Magnus VII. A simultaneous movement to make Magnus King of Sweden proved successful (he was a grandson of King Magnus Ladulås of Sweden), and both the kings of Sweden and of Denmark were elected to the throne by their respective nobles. Thus Sweden and Norway were united under King Magnus VII.
In 1349, the Black Death killed between 50% and 60% of Norway's population and led to a period of social and economic decline. Although the death rate was comparable with the rest of Europe, economic recovery took much longer because of the small, scattered population. Even before the plague, the population was only about 500,000. After the plague, many farms lay idle while the population slowly increased. However, the few surviving farms' tenants found their bargaining positions with their landlords greatly strengthened.
King Magnus VII ruled Norway until 1350, when his son, Haakon, was placed on the throne as Haakon VI. In 1363, Haakon married Margaret, daughter of King Valdemar IV of Denmark. Upon the death of Haakon in 1379, his 10-year-old son Olaf IV acceded to the throne. As Olaf had already been elected to the throne of Denmark in 1376, Denmark and Norway entered a personal union. Olaf's mother and Haakon's widow, Queen Margaret, managed the foreign affairs of Denmark and Norway during Olaf's minority.
Margaret was on the verge of achieving a union of Sweden with Denmark and Norway when Olaf IV suddenly died. Denmark made Margaret temporary ruler on the death of Olaf. On 2 February 1388, Norway followed suit and crowned Margaret. Queen Margaret knew that her power would be more secure if she were able to find a king to rule in her place. She settled on Eric of Pomerania, grandson of her sister. Thus at an all-Scandinavian meeting held at Kalmar, Erik of Pomerania was crowned king of all three Scandinavian countries, bringing the thrones of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden under the control of Queen Margaret when the country entered into the Kalmar Union.
Early modern period.
After Sweden broke out of the Kalmar Union in 1521, Norway tried to follow suit, but the subsequent rebellion was defeated, and Norway remained in a union with Denmark until 1814. This period was by some referred to as the "400-Year Night", since all of the kingdom's intellectual and administrative power was centred in Copenhagen.
With the introduction of Protestantism in 1536, the archbishopric in Trondheim was dissolved; Norway lost its independence and effectually became a colony of Denmark. The Church's income and possessions were instead redirected to the court in Copenhagen. Norway lost the steady stream of pilgrims to the relics of St. Olav at the Nidaros shrine and, with them, much of the contact with cultural and economic life in the rest of Europe.
Eventually restored as a kingdom (albeit in legislative union with Denmark) in 1661, Norway saw its land area decrease in the 17th century with the loss of the provinces Båhuslen, Jemtland, and Herjedalen to Sweden, as the result of a number of disastrous wars. In the north, its territory was increased by the acquisition of the provinces of Troms and Finnmark, at the expense of Sweden and Russia.
The famine of 1695–1696 killed roughly 10% of Norway's population. The harvest failed in Scandinavia at least nine times between 1740 and 1800, with great loss of life.
Later modern period.
After Denmark–Norway was attacked by the United Kingdom at the 1807 Battle of Copenhagen, it entered into an alliance with Napoleon, with the war leading to dire conditions and mass starvation in 1812. As the Danish kingdom was on the losing side in 1814, it was forced by the Treaty of Kiel to cede Norway to Sweden, while the old Norwegian provinces of Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands remained with the Danish crown. Norway took this opportunity to declare independence, adopted a constitution based on American and French models, and elected the Crown Prince of Denmark and Norway, Christian Frederick, as king on 17 May 1814 – celebrated as the Syttende mai (Seventeenth of May) holiday.
Norwegian opposition to the decision to link Norway with Sweden caused the Norwegian–Swedish War to break out as Sweden tried to subdue Norway by military means. As Sweden's military was not strong enough to defeat the Norwegian forces outright, and Norway's treasury was not large enough to support a protracted war, and as British and Russian navies blockaded the Norwegian coast, the belligerents were forced to negotiate the Convention of Moss. Christian Frederik abdicated the Norwegian throne and authorised the Parliament of Norway to make the necessary constitutional amendments to allow for the personal union that Norway was forced to accept. On 4 November 1814, the Parliament (Storting) elected Charles XIII of Sweden as king of Norway, thereby establishing the union with Sweden. Under this arrangement, Norway kept its liberal constitution and its own independent institutions, though it shared a monarch and foreign policy with Sweden. Following the recession caused by the Napoleonic Wars, economic development of Norway remained slow until 1830.
This period also saw the rise of Norwegian romantic nationalism, as Norwegians sought to define and express a distinct national character. The movement covered all branches of culture, including literature (Henrik Wergeland, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, Jørgen Moe), painting (Hans Gude, Adolph Tidemand), music (Edvard Grieg), and even language policy, where attempts to define a native written language for Norway led to today's two official written forms for Norwegian: Bokmål and Nynorsk.
King Charles III John came to the throne of Norway and Sweden in 1818 and reigned to 1844. He protected the constitution and liberties of Norway and Sweden during the age of Metternich. As such, he was regarded as a liberal monarch. However, he was ruthless in his use of paid informers, secret police and restrictions on the freedom of the press to put down public movements for reform—especially the Norwegian national independence movement.
The Romantic Era that followed the reign of Charles III John brought some significant social and political reforms. In 1854, women won the right to inherit property. In 1863, the last trace of keeping unmarried women in the status of minors was removed. Furthermore, women were eligible for different occupations, particularly the common school teacher. By mid-century, Norway's democracy was limited; voting was limited to officials, property owners, leaseholders and burghers of incorporated towns.
Norway remained a conservative society. Life in Norway (especially economic life) was "dominated by the aristocracy of professional men who filled most of the important posts in the central government". There was no strong bourgeois class to demand a breakdown of this aristocratic control. Thus, even while revolution swept over most of the countries of Europe in 1848, Norway was largely unaffected.
Marcus Thrane was a Utopian socialist who in 1848 organised a labour society in Drammen. In just a few months, this society had a membership of 500 and was publishing its own newspaper. Within two years, 300 societies had been organised all over Norway, with a total membership of 20,000 drawn from the lower classes of both urban and rural areas. In the end, the revolt was easily crushed; Thrane was captured and jailed.
In 1898, all men were granted universal suffrage, followed by all women in 1913.
Dissolution of the union and the First World War.
Christian Michelsen, Prime Minister of Norway from 1905 to 1907, played a central role in the peaceful separation of Norway from Sweden on 7 June 1905. A national referendum confirmed the people's preference for a monarchy over a republic. However, no Norwegian could legitimately claim the throne, since none of Norway's noble families could claim royal descent.
The government then offered the throne of Norway to Prince Carl of Denmark, a prince of the Dano-German royal house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and a distant relative of Norway's medieval kings. Following the plebiscite, he was unanimously elected king by the Norwegian Parliament; he took the name Haakon VII.
Throughout the First World War, Norway remained neutral; however, diplomatic pressure from the British government meant that it heavily favoured the Allies. During the war, Norway exported fish to both Germany and Britain, until an ultimatum from the British government and anti-German sentiments as a result of German submarines targeting Norwegian merchantmen led to a termination of trade with Germany. 436 Norwegian merchantmen were sunk by the "Kaiserliche Marine", with 1,150 Norwegian sailors killed.
Second World War.
Norway once more proclaimed its neutrality during the Second World War, but was invaded by German forces on 9 April 1940. Although Norway was unprepared for the German surprise attack (see: Battle of Drøbak Sound, Norwegian Campaign, and Invasion of Norway), military and naval resistance lasted for two months. Norwegian armed forces in the north launched an offensive against the German forces in the Battles of Narvik, but were forced to surrender on 10 June after losing British support which had been diverted to France during the German invasion of France.
King Haakon and the Norwegian government escaped to Rotherhithe in London. Throughout the war they sent radio speeches and supported clandestine military actions against the Germans. On the day of the invasion, the leader of the small National-Socialist party Nasjonal Samling, Vidkun Quisling, tried to seize power, but was forced by the German occupiers to step aside. Real power was wielded by the leader of the German occupation authority, Josef Terboven. Quisling, as "minister president", later formed a collaborationist government under German control. Up to 15,000 Norwegians volunteered to fight in German units, including the Waffen-SS.
Many Norwegians and persons of Norwegian descent joined the Allied forces as well as the Free Norwegian Forces. In June 1940, a small group had left Norway following their king to Britain. This group included 13 ships, five aircraft, and 500 men from the Royal Norwegian Navy. By the end of the war, the force had grown to 58 ships and 7,500 men in service in the Royal Norwegian Navy, 5 squadrons of aircraft in the newly formed Norwegian Air Force, and land forces including the Norwegian Independent Company 1 and 5 Troop as well as No. 10 Commandos.
During German occupation, Norwegians built a resistance movement which incorporated civil disobedience and armed resistance including the destruction of Norsk Hydro's heavy water plant and stockpile of heavy water at Vemork, which crippled the German nuclear programme. More important to the Allied war effort, however, was the role of the Norwegian Merchant Marine, the fourth-largest merchant marine fleet in the world. It was led by the Norwegian shipping company Nortraship under the Allies throughout the war and took part in every war operation from the evacuation of Dunkirk to the Normandy landings. Every December Norway gives a Christmas tree to the United Kingdom as thanks for the British assistance during the war.
Svalbard was not occupied by German troops, but Germany secretly established a meteorological station there in 1944.
Post–World War II history.
From 1945 to 1962, the Labour Party held an absolute majority in the parliament. The government, led by prime minister Einar Gerhardsen, embarked on a programme inspired by Keynesian economics, emphasising state financed industrialisation and co-operation between trade unions and employers' organisations. Many measures of state control of the economy imposed during the war were continued, although the rationing of dairy products was lifted in 1949, while price controls and rationing of housing and cars continued until 1960.
The wartime alliance with the United Kingdom and the United States continued in the post-war years. Although pursuing the goal of a socialist economy, the Labour Party distanced itself from the Communists, especially after the Communists' seizure of power in Czechoslovakia in 1948, and strengthened its foreign policy and defence policy ties with the US. Norway received Marshall Plan aid from the United States starting in 1947, joined the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) one year later, and became a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949.
Oil was discovered at the small Balder field in 1967, but production only began in 1999. In 1969, the Phillips Petroleum Company discovered petroleum resources at the Ekofisk field west of Norway. In 1973, the Norwegian government founded the State oil company, Statoil (now Equinor). Oil production did not provide net income until the early 1980s because of the large capital investment required. Around 1975, both the proportion and absolute number of workers in industry peaked. Since then labour-intensive industries and services like factory mass production and shipping have largely been outsourced.
Norway was a founding member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). Norway was twice invited to join the European Union, but ultimately declined after referendums that failed by narrow margins in 1972 and 1994.
In 1981, a Conservative Party government led by Kåre Willoch replaced the Labour Party with a policy of stimulating the stagflated economy with tax cuts, economic liberalisation, deregulation of markets, and measures to curb record-high inflation (13.6% in 1981).
Norway's first female prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland of the Labour Party continued many of the reforms, while backing traditional Labour concerns such as social security, high taxes, the industrialisation of nature, and feminism. By the late 1990s, Norway had paid off its foreign debt and had started accumulating a sovereign wealth fund. Since the 1990s, a divisive question in politics has been how much of the income from petroleum production the government should spend, and how much it should save.
In 2011, Norway suffered two terrorist attacks by Anders Behring Breivik which struck the government quarter in Oslo and a summer camp of the Labour party's youth movement at Utøya island, resulting in 77 deaths and 319 wounded.
Jens Stoltenberg led Norway as prime minister for eight years from 2005 to 2013. The 2013 Norwegian parliamentary election brought a more conservative government to power, with the Conservative Party and the Progress Party winning 43% of the electorate's votes. In the Norwegian parliamentary election 2017 the centre-right government of Prime Minister Erna Solberg won re-election. The 2021 Norwegian parliamentary election saw a big win for the left-wing opposition in an election fought on climate change, inequality, and oil; Labour leader Jonas Gahr Støre was sworn in as prime minister.
Geography.
Norway's core territory comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula; the remote island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard are also included. The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also claims a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land. Norwegian possessions in the North Atlantic, Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland, remained Danish when Norway was passed to Sweden at the Treaty of Kiel. Norway also comprised Bohuslän until 1658, Jämtland and Härjedalen until 1645, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, and the Hebrides and Isle of Man until the Treaty of Perth in 1266.
Norway comprises the western and northernmost part of Scandinavia in Northern Europe, between latitudes 57° and 81° N, and longitudes 4° and 32° E. Norway is the northernmost of the Nordic countries and if Svalbard is included also the easternmost. Norway includes the northernmost point on the European mainland. The rugged coastline is broken by huge fjords and thousands of islands. The coastal baseline is . The coastline of the mainland including fjords stretches , when islands are included the coastline has been estimated to . Norway shares a land border with Sweden, with Finland, and with Russia to the east. To the north, west and south, Norway is bordered by the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea, and Skagerrak. The Scandinavian Mountains form much of the border with Sweden.
At (including Svalbard and Jan Mayen; without), much of the country is dominated by mountainous or high terrain, with a great variety of natural features caused by prehistoric glaciers and varied topography. The most noticeable of these are the fjords. Sognefjorden is the world's second deepest fjord, and the world's longest at . The lake Hornindalsvatnet is the deepest lake in Europe. Norway has about 400,000 lakes and 239,057 registered islands. Permafrost can be found all year in the higher mountain areas and in the interior of Finnmark county. Numerous glaciers are found in Norway. The land is mostly made of hard granite and gneiss rock, but slate, sandstone, and limestone are also common, and the lowest elevations contain marine deposits.
Climate.
Because of the Gulf Stream and prevailing westerlies, Norway experiences higher temperatures and more precipitation than expected at such northern latitudes, especially along the coast. The mainland experiences four distinct seasons, with colder winters and less precipitation inland. The northernmost part has a mostly maritime Subarctic climate, while Svalbard has an Arctic tundra climate. The southern and western parts of Norway, fully exposed to Atlantic storm fronts, experience more precipitation and have milder winters than the eastern and far northern parts. Areas to the east of the coastal mountains are in a rain shadow, and have lower rain and snow totals than the west. The lowlands around Oslo have the warmest summers, but also cold weather and snow in wintertime.