Portrait of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Krøyer's 1901 portrait of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson — the Norwegian novelist and playwright who had won the Nobel Prize in Literature just the previous year — documents one of the towering figures of late nineteenth-century Scandinavian culture at the height of his recognition. Bjørnson was a Norwegian nationalist, a champion of the common people, and a prolific writer whose work had shaped Norwegian cultural identity during the struggle for independence from Sweden. The portrait is now held at the National Theatre Oslo, a fitting location: Bjørnson had been its first artistic director and a central figure in establishing the institution that would become Norway's cultural flagship.

Krøyer renders the Nobel laureate with the confident tonal portrait technique he had developed through his years at Skagen and his training in Paris. The elder Bjørnson's imposing physical presence — his white hair and beard, his substantial frame — is captured with the directness that characterizes Krøyer's best portraits of significant men.