Henrik Finne
Henrik Finne (1898-1992) was a Norwegian painter, printmaker and sculptor, born in Stavanger and deceased at Bjorbekk near Arendal. Working people, travel impressions and clearly constructed forms recur in his work.
Painting, travel and working life
Finne studied at Oslo's Academy of Fine Arts in 1919 and with André Lhote in Paris in 1920-1921. His travels provided townscapes and scenes of work and everyday life. He also painted landscapes, portraits and nudes.
He exhibited with Rolf Rude and others at Kunstnernes Hus in 1934. The group emphasised painting's colour, construction and craft.
His article in Polar-Årboken 1939 reveals his interests on the whaling grounds: people working, movement, light and colour. Rapid observations and drawings would become developed pictures later. This directly documents his working process, without linking every later whaling subject to a particular sketch.
Colour woodcuts and public commissions
Rolf Nesch introduced him to printmaking in 1940. Finne developed colour woodcuts with angular forms and broad areas, using wood grain and ink for expression. Fresco pigments mixed with linseed oil could produce a grainy or thicker surface, an important consideration when examining prints.
Arendal municipality records these examples:
- Gammel middelalderlandsby (1954): colour woodcut, 64 x 47 cm, marked “Tiré par l'artiste”.
- Nordlandsfiskere: colour woodcut, 64 x 44 cm, inscribed “Epreuve d'artiste”. The municipality dates this example to 1955.
- Flisevegg (1964), at Birkenlund school, demonstrates abstract decoration in brick. The municipality links it to his later façade work for the former theatre in Kristiansand.
Finne is also represented in the Tjørhom Collection at Haugesund billedgalleri, placing him within Norway's interest in woodcuts and other relief prints after 1940.
Editions, signatures and documentation
Read each sheet's technique and inscriptions individually. Grev Wedels Plass Auksjoner catalogued Marked (1959) as a lithograph numbered 121/265, signed “Finne” and dated. He was therefore not exclusively a woodcut artist. Nor does a surname alone identify him without supporting evidence from the work.
An original print can exist in an edition. A reproduction copies another image and should be described accordingly. Compare subject, technique, sheet size and complete inscriptions. Assess wood grain and uneven ink coverage before labelling them damage. Record tears, stains, fading, paper losses and mounting traces separately. Include former ownership, receipts and exhibition records where available.
Read more about artist signatures, provenance and ownership history, woodcuts.
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Sources
- Norsk kunstnerleksikon: biography and print techniques
- Store norske leksikon: the Norwegian painter
- Kunstnernes Hus: 1934 group exhibition
- Henrik Finne: his 1939 whaling article
- Arendal municipality: Gammel middelalderlandsby
- Arendal municipality: Nordlandsfiskere
- Arendal municipality: Flisevegg
- Haugalandmuseet: Tjørhom Collection
- Grev Wedels Plass Auksjoner: lithograph and markings
- National Museum: artist record
