Christian Krohg

Christian Krohg was a Norwegian realist who painted everyday life, often the hard side of it: seamen, working women, the poor and the marginal. His pictures are direct and unsentimental, with a strong feeling for people.

Born near Christiania (Oslo), he first qualified in law, then trained as a painter in Karlsruhe under Hans Gude and in Berlin. He spent time at the Skagen artists’ colony in Denmark in the 1880s, painting fishermen and sailors. He was also a novelist and journalist, taught in Paris, and from 1909 led the new Norwegian Academy of Fine Arts. His works hang in the National Museum in Oslo and in the Skagens Museum.

Two of his best known paintings are on our list: Albertine at the Police Doctor’s Waiting Room, a large scene linked to his own novel Albertine, and Leif Erikson Discovers America (1893), a sweeping view of the Viking ship’s crew at the moment of sighting land.