• Theodor Severin Kittelsen (1857-1914)

    Part 1: Childhood in Kragerø

    Kittelsen opens his autobiography (Folk og Trold. Minder og drømme) with the words, “There was adventure in every nook and cranny of my old hometown.”

    Theodor began his life in the Kittelsen house, on the second floor where the family lived. His father, Johannes, ran a liquor store on the first floor and made good money from it. Johannes had many irons in the fire; he was also a road supervisor for the municipality and had a position in P.A. Heuch’s shipping company. The small family had plenty of money and looked forward to moving into a larger apartment in the neighboring building, which was built according to Renaissance architectural principles, Chic-gården, which was completed in 1863. The Kittelsen house was purchased by Kragerø municipality in the late 1980s and today serves as a museum and a reconstruction of the home where Theodor began his life.

    Kragerø City was experiencing rapid growth in the mid-1800s. The shipping industry was large, and people made good money exporting ice and wood on large sailing ships. Unfortunately, the heyday that Theodor grew up with in Kragerø was coming to an end. The transition to more modern steamships was not going well, and the Crimean War in Europe affected the export industry. The shipping company where Johannes worked was having difficult times, and Johannes was struggling financially. When Theodor was 10 years old, his father was declared bankrupt by the municipality due to failure to pay the liquor tax. The following year, Johannes died of an unknown illness, leaving the mother alone with Theodor and his siblings.

    Theodor Kittelsen experienced a tremendous class journey early in life. He was born into a wealthy family that had the resources to send him to one of Kragerø’s finer schools. All of that was taken away with his father’s sudden bankruptcy and death. He was removed from the finer middle-class school and placed in the elementary school, which had far fewer resources. In a small town like Kragerø, where houses are close together, it is likely that this economic journey also affected the family’s social status. Many years later, when Theodor wrote in his autobiography, he described the drama of small-town life with the phrase “the white picket fences’ stranglehold.” If you look around the neighborhood of the Kittelsen house today, you can still see how closely the houses are packed together, and if we imagine a small town where everyone knows everyone, and where status and economic background define who you are, it’s not surprising that Kittelsen has some mixed feelings about his hometown.

    Chapter 2: Education and Travel

    During his time with the clockmaker in Kragerø, Theodor’s drawing talent was noticed, and he was told that some wealthy men would help him to Kristiania to work as an apprentice to a decorator. Theodor traveled to the capital, but it was a short stay. The financial support from the Kragerø gentlemen was unsteady, and the work he received mostly consisted of repainting old church pews. Theodor was hungry and poor, he used the money sent to him to buy a ticket back to Kragerø. Theodor’s mother was disappointed, and she got him an apprenticeship with a clockmaker in Arendal.

    Didrik Maria Aall was a regular customer at the clockmaker’s shop where Theodor worked in Arendal. He was also the chairman of the newly started Arendal Art Association. Aall sent Theodor’s drawings to an Art School in Kristiania, and Theodor was offered a school place if Aall and others funded the boy’s living expenses. Aall invited him home and asked Theodor if he would be willing to travel to Kristiania to attend the Art School. The 18-year-old traveled from Arendal fifteen days later. This time everything went much better. The school filled most of Theodor’s time, and he developed as a drawer, and gained a good understanding of the technical aspects of drawing.

    In 1879, he painted the Strike, which was purchased and exhibited at the Art Association in Kristiania. It was a picture marked by German realism, with the workers’ social and economic conditions being the motif in the painting. Kittelsen never became a realist, he was too preoccupied with romantic and mystical motives.

    Part 3: Homecoming

    “It was nice to see the worn-out islands and rocks along the coast at home. A joyful desire came over me – just to be able to walk in joy on the old familiar grey stone.”

    When Kittelsen is going home, he first travels to Kragerø, he stays with his sister and brother-in-law at Barthebrygga. It is probably a combination of financial considerations and homesickness that make him travel here in the autumn of 1880. It doesn’t take long before he realizes that he needs more colleagues than Kragerø can offer, so he travels to Kristiania in the spring.

    The work on the motive Ecco begins, a drawing in a romantic style, with a violent mountain wall as a backdrop for some small people in a small boat in the foreground. The motive is said to be taken from Valbergheia just outside Kragerø. Kittelsen has made the motive in several versions over several years and other surroundings have also influenced the image. In Ecco we find a troll-like face surrounded by fog at the top of the mountain, a haunting of a natural phenomenon, a grip that becomes typical for Kittelsen in the years to come.

    Kittelsen becomes a well-known name as he is commissioned to illustrate a new edition of Asbjørnsen and Moe’s folk tales along with Erik Werenskiold, who was originally asked to do the whole task himself. Werenskiold writes in a letter to Asbjørnsen that he;” knows a guy from the time in Germany, who is better at painting what is not real”. Werenskiold knew Kittelsen’s rich imagination, and Kittelsen’s job was to draw the figures and characters from the folk tales that required a pronounced imagination; princesses on polar bears, trolls with their heads under their necks, and the hare that laughed so his mouth cracked. The illustrations are often done in pen and watercolour, relatively quick techniques that fit Kittelsen’s imagination and humour well.

    The fairy tale illustrations are central to Kittelsen’s artistic career and have become part of the Norwegian folk heritage. Throughout the 1800s, creating a national identity was an important project for the young nation of Norway. Asbjørnsen and Moe collected the Norwegian folk tales, inspired by the Brothers Grimm in Germany, and Ibsen wrote Peer Gynt. Kittelsen’s contribution was a visual expression that set the tone for what we today think of as distinctly Norwegian.

    Part 4: Kittelsen and Inga on Skåtøy

    The same autumn that Inga and Theodor get married, they choose to settle on Skåtøy in the Kragerø archipelago. This marks the start of a productive period for Kittelsen. He receives good income from the satire drawings “Fra livet i de Smaa Forholde” which are published by a publishing house in Kristiania, and he has time to work on several other projects, one of them being “Months in the Year”.

    Inga proves to be an invaluable resource and supporter for Theodor. She takes care of all the economic matters that Theodor has neglected, she rows to the city with his works and finds buyers. She helps Theodor with all letter correspondence, and she gives birth to a total of nine children in the years to come. A few years after the couple left Skåtøy, a fisherman was asked if he remembered the artist Kittelsen who lived on the island; he remembered the wife very well, it was she who was on the roof and mended it when it leaked.

    Unlike Theodor, Inga had done very well in school, and she had also been given the opportunity to continue to girls’ school in Kristiania after she finished her primary education. Inga was able to learn languages and mathematics from qualified teachers who also taught at the universities in Kristiania. It is difficult to imagine Theodor working as dedicatedly without the competent and resourceful Inga by his side.

    Another series that begins on Skåtøy is the series about the Black Death, the plague that ravaged Norway in the mid-1400s. There were wandering stories told about an old woman who went between villages and towns and spread the terrible disease. It was said that if she took a broom inside, everyone would die. But if she took a rake inside, there was hope for those who fell between the teeth of the rake. Theodor knows the stories and they come to mind one day when he meets his neighbour on Skåtøy. In his autobiography, he describes the meeting as:

    “She was small, thin and crooked, her face yellow green with black spots. Her eyes were squinty, dark and restless and deeply set in her skull. Every now and then, a horribly wicked look came into them, and then they would dart around in all directions, so it was impossible to catch them. Her mouth ran rapidly, sharply and bitterly. […] She is worse than the plague itself, I thought, and so she got her name.”

    The incident is typical of Kittelsen, he takes a story that already exists and gives it a visual expression. The series depicts the fear and terror that is present in the nature of the plague, which is difficult to depict through numbers and statistics, but which is present in Kittelsen’s black-and-white drawings.

    Part 5: Lauvlia

    In 1893, he makes a trip to Jomfruland in the Kragerø archipelago, where he stays with lighthouse keeper Sartz for a short period, with great enthusiasm. Sartz describes the artist’s arrival on the island as follows:

    “with his mind full of work ethic and joyful mood” ,”like a champagne glass, which the wine was filled too quickly in – his mood foamed over to all sides and his eyes were like diamonds in the sunshine”.

    The stay on Jomfruland only lasts a few months, but he uses the time effectively and collects enough sketches for a series about Jomfruland that is completed later. The pictures are almost completely without people, and the motifs are characterized by wildlife and free nature, and there is a greater peace here compared to Theodor’s earlier production. This also becomes Kittelsen’s last stay in Kragerø.

    Around the turn of the century, Kittelsen receives a new drive in his artistic career and starts, among other things, a series of winter motifs that were illustrations for a book of poetry by Theodor Caspari. The series was very successful, the interest in winter motifs was high after Fridtjof Nansen had crossed Greenland on skis a few years earlier and created the idea of Norway as a winter nation. The series is a highlight of Kittelsen’s late artistic career, and the winter motifs have appeared on both stamps, postcards and porcelain.

    The National Museum finally shows interest in Kittelsen and buys the series Soria Moria Castle, which consists of paintings with fairy tale motifs. The series includes pictures such as Kvitebjørn Kong Valemon and Langt langt borte saa han noget lyse og glitre, well-known works that are among the best known today.

    In 1908, Kittelsen is appointed Knight of St. Olav’s Order. He is plagued by gout and is unable to travel to Kristiania to receive it. The brooch and a ceremonial letter from the castle are sent to Lauvlia, and Kittelsen’s eldest daughter Ingrid has described the event:

    “So there he stood with the Olav Cross in his hand, and he looked both happy and joyful” “Mom and we children congratulated him, then he walked over to Mom, and fastened the order on her chest, on her everyday dress. – Here you are, Mommy, he said, and embraced her, strongly moved.”

    Kittelsen’s illness becomes worse, and it affects his work. In 1911, friend and art historian Andreas Aubert works to get an artist’s salary for Kittelsen. It is a support scheme that is awarded by the Parliament, it is an economic security and a recognition for artists who have excelled for a long time. Kittelsen is awarded 1600 kroner per year for as long as he lives, a good help for the large family and the poor health he suffers from.

    On New Year’s Eve 1914, Kittelsen wrote a letter to “The King and the Norwegian People” in which he asks that Inga be allowed to keep the artist’s salary he has been awarded. The letter reads, among other things:

    “What she has been to me and my art is worth more than gold” “and the thought that she, with such a large family after my death, would be thrown into the worst worries, fills me with great anxiety and unease.”

    Theodor died on 21 January, 1914.

    It takes time, but by the summer, the answer to the letter Kittelsen addressed to “The King and the Norwegian People” arrives, in which the Parliament has decided that Inga will keep the artist’s salary after Theordore’s death.

    Søk
    Search