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Information about Theodor Kittelsen

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Theodor Kittelsen, drawing from 1892 by Christian Krohg.


Theodor Severin Kittelsen (April 27, 1857 – January 21, 1914) was a Norwegian artist born in the coastal town of Kragerø in Norway. He is famous for his nature paintings on the one hand, and on the other hand for his illustrations of fairytales and legends, especially of trolls.

For a time, Kittelsen studied painting and watchmaking. When his talent was discovered by Diderich Maria Aall, he attended classes at the School of Art in Christiania. Because of generous financial support by Aall he was able to continue his study in Munich. However, in 1879 Diderich Aall could no longer manage to support him, so Kittelsen had to earn his money as a draughtsman for German papers and magazines. When back in Norway, he found nature to be a great inspiration. Kittelsen started to write texts to his drawings here.

In 1881, Kittelsen was hired to illustrate Norwegian fairy-tales by the Norwegian folklore collector Peter Christen Asbjørnsen.

His style could be classified between (Neo-)Romantic and naive painting. As a national artist he is highly respected and well known in Norway, but doesn't receive much international attention and that is the reason for the fact that his name is hardly registered in registers of painters.

Black metal bands such as Burzum have used nearly all of his pictures as album art, notably illustrations taken from Kittelsen's book Svartedauen (The Black Death).

Paintings and drawings


Nøkken, 1887-92 (The Water Sprite)

Sjøtrollet, 1887 (The Sea Troll)

Røst, 1890 (From the Island Roest)

Det rusler og tusler rasler og tasler, 1900 (Creepy, Crawly, Rustling, Bustling)

Kornstaur i måneskinn, ca. 1900 (Stooks of Corn in Moonlight)

Skogtroll, 1906 (Forest Troll)

Hakkespett, 1912 (Woodpecker)

En uheldig bjørnejakt. (An Unfortunate Bear Hunt)

Illustration for Johan Herman Wessel's The Smith and the Baker

Illustrations for Svartedauen (The Black Death)


Fattigmannen, 1894-95 (The Pauper)

Pesta i trappen, 1896 (Plague on the Stairs)

Pesta Kommer, 1894-95 (Plague's Coming)

Musstad, 1896


Bibliography

Books illustrated by Theodor Kittelsen
  • Fra Livet i de smaa Forholde I-II (1889-1890)
  • Fra Lofoten I-II (1890-1891)
  • Troldskab (1892)
  • Glemmebogen (1892)
  • "Har dyrene Sjæl?" (1894)
  • Kludesamleren (1894)
  • Im Thierstaate (1896)
  • Ordsprog (1898)
  • Svartedauen (1900)
  • Billeder og Ord (1901)
  • Folk og trold. Minder og drømme (1911)
  • Soria Moria slot (1911)
  • Løgn og forbandet digt (1912)
  • "Heimskringla" (1914)

References

External links

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The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. Debate, both historical and present day, suggests that defining the concept of an artist will continue to be difficult.
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town is a community of people ranging from a few hundred to several thousands, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas. Usually, a "town" is thought of as larger than a village but smaller than a "city".
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Kragerø   (help info ) is a town and municipality in the county of Telemark, Norway.

The town of Kragerø was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt).
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Motto
Royal: Alt for Norge ("Everything for Norway")
1814 Eidsvoll oath: Enige og tro til Dovre faller
("United and faithful until the mountains of Dovre crumble")

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Ja, vi elsker

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A troll is a fearsome member of a mythical anthropomorph race from Norse mythology. Originally more or less the nordic equivalents of giants, although often smaller in size, the different depictions have come to range from the fiendish giants – similar to the ogres of
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Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812-1885) was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe (1813-1882) were collectors of Norwegian folklore. They were so closely united in their lifes' work that their folk tale collections are commonly mentioned only as
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Romanticism is an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated around the middle of the 18th century in Western Europe, during the Industrial Revolution. It was partly a revolt against aristocratic, social, and political norms of the Enlightenment period and a
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Burzum began in 1991 as a prominent and influential Norwegian black metal act by Varg Vikernes (born Kristian Vikernes). Originally, he used the pseudonym Count Grishnackh.
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Black Death, or The Black Plague, was one of the most deadly pandemics in human history. It began in South-western or Central Asia and spread to Europe by the late 1340s.
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Johan Herman Wessel (October 6, 1742 - December 29, 1785) was a major name in Norwegian and Danish literature. (Norway-Denmark being in union at the time.) Some of his satirical poems are still popular.
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