Oda Krohg
Oda Krohg: from summer nights to portraiture
Oda Krohg (1860 to 1935), née Lasson, was a Norwegian painter with an independent practice encompassing atmospheric scenes, family subjects and portraits. She grew up in Kristiania and became a pupil of Christian Krohg in the early 1880s. Contact with artistic circles in Norway and France informed work that deserves to be understood through the pictures themselves, alongside accounts of the Kristiania bohemians.
Light, cropping and everyday life
A Japanese Lantern of 1886 is a pastel showing a woman by a doorway, with a cool summer night outside and warm light from a paper lantern. Its cropping and decorative simplification connect the work with Japonisme. It entered Norway’s National Gallery as a gift from Olaf Schou in 1909.
The quiet night scene represents only one aspect of her early work. A Newspaper Subscriber shows a child cutting up a newspaper. The position near the picture’s edge, diagonals and visible brushstrokes give the scene movement. The National Museum’s example is an oil painting on canvas from 1887, measuring 46.5 cm high and 54.5 cm wide.
The family and summer-night pictures also developed in a decorative direction. Krohg used broad, free brushstrokes and often a thin paint layer. Brushwork and the character of the paint layer should be examined together with the subject and documentation.
Portraits after the turn of the century
Around 1900, portraiture became central. Artists and cultural figures were depicted with warm colours and marked contrasts between face and background. Aasta Hansteen is catalogued with the date “(1903)” and painted in oil on canvas. The portrait of Ivar Arosenius, also oil on canvas, is dated probably 1905 by the museum. These qualifications should accompany the work details.
After returning to Kristiania in 1911, she continued painting portraits. The portrait of actress Johanne Dybwad from 1912 shows her later, freer brushwork. After 1915 she exhibited less frequently. Her practice also included decorated leather. A bookbinding from around 1900 in the National Museum is tentatively attributed to Oda Krohg and Alexandra Thaulow. It is not securely documented as Krohg’s work alone.
Technique, authorship and condition
A pastel, an oil painting and a later reproduction are different object types, even when they share a subject. A reproduction of A Japanese Lantern should not be described as an original pastel. A purported print or numbered edition requires its own documentation. Information about printmaking technique and edition size must relate to the particular work.
For assessment, document the entire front, support, dimensions, signature and reverse. Examine a pastel’s surface and earlier framing, and describe paint loss, overpainting or restoration on paintings. Preserve old labels, invoices and documented ownership history. A similar signature or family subject alone does not establish that an object was made by Oda Krohg.
Read more about artist signatures, provenance and ownership history.
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Read our article about Christian Krohg.
