Bengt Nordenberg (April 22, 1822 – December 18, 1902) was a Swedish artist. He belonged to the

Düsseldorf school of painting The Düsseldorf school of painting is a term referring to a group of painters who taught or studied at the Düsseldorf Academy (now the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf or Düsseldorf State Art Academy) during the 1830s and 1840s, when the A ...

and is best known for his

genre paintings Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached ...

with everyday life scenes from the Dalarna,

Skåne Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skån ...

and

Blekinge Blekinge (, old da, Bleking) is one of the traditional Swedish provinces (), situated in the southern coast of the geographic region of Götaland, in southern Sweden. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea. It is the country's sec ...

areas of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

. He moved to

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

in the 1850s.

Biography

Nordenberg was born at

Jämshög Jämshög is a locality situated in Olofström Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with 1,494 inhabitants in 2010. It is the site of Jämshög Church (''Jämshögs kyrka'') in the Diocese of Lund. During the Northern Seven Years' War (1563 - ...

Blekinge County Blekinge County ( sv, Blekinge län) is a county or '' län'' in the south of Sweden. It borders the Counties of Skåne, Kronoberg, Kalmar and the Baltic Sea. The capital is Karlskrona. It is the smallest of the present administrative count ...

, Sweden. He was one of nine siblings born to Per Jönsson Nord (1785-1854) and his wife Sissa Bengtsdotter (b. 1792). He grew up in poverty and became an apprentice to a painter in

Sölvesborg Sölvesborg (old da, Sølvesborg) is a locality and the seat of Sölvesborg Municipality in Blekinge County, Sweden with 10,024 inhabitants in 2013. Sölvesborg is, despite its small population, for historical reasons normally still referred t ...

. In 1843 he fulfilled his wish to come to

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

and study at the

Royal Swedish Academy of Arts The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts ( sv, Kungliga Akademien för de fria konsterna), commonly called the Royal Academy, is located in Stockholm, Sweden. An independent organization that promotes the development of painting, sculpture, archite ...

. In the autumn of 1851, he went to the Düsseldorf Academy, where first Theodor Hildebrandt and then later, Adolph Tidemand became his teachers. In particular, the latter had a big influence on Nordenberg's painting style and subject matter. For some time he worked as an assistant to Tidemand, making reproductions of his paintings. Nordenberg also painted pictures of middle-class and upper-class life, and also religious paintings and

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting ...

s. He painted altarpieces in several Småland churches, including at Stenbrohult in Älmhult and Gårdsby in Växjö. In 1856, Nordenberg received a travel grant from the Swedish state. He studied with French history painter

Thomas Couture Thomas Couture (21 December 1815 – 30 March 1879) was a French history painter and teacher. He taught such later luminaries of the art world as Édouard Manet, Henri Fantin-Latour, John La Farge,Wilkinson, Burke. ''The Life and Works o ...

(1815–1879) for one and a half years, made a short stop in Düsseldorf, and in the autumn of 1858 he went to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. He returned soon to Düsseldorf, where he settled for life. From 1856 to 1889 he was a member of Malkasten, an artists' association there. He also gave private lessons to Swedish artists including Peter Eskilsson (1820-1872), Augusta Jensen (1858-1936) and his nephew Henrik Nordenberg (1857-1928).

Personal life

In 1855, Nordenberg married Nanny Maria Charlotta Sutthof (1831-1905).

Gallery

Image:Bengt Nordenberg - Kyrkrodd, Dalarna.jpg, ''Rowing to the Church, Dalarna'' (1854) Image:Bengt Nordenberg - Veteranerna.jpg, ''The Veterans'' (1882) Image:Bengt Nordenberg - En riven get.jpg, ''A Torn Goat'' Image:Bengt Nordenberg - Herdefamilj med getter.jpg, ''Sheppard Family with Goats'' (1863) Image:Bengt Nordenberg - Vinterfärd.jpg, ''Winter Travel'' (1882) File:Avsked från föräldrahemmet, Bengt Nordenberg - Hallwylska museet - 13192.tif, ''Leaving home'' (1876)

References

Other sources

*Ann-Marie Elmqvist (1994) ''Bengt Nordenberg: folklivsmålaren'' (A.-M. Elmqvist)

External links

Bengt Nordenberg in ''Nordisk familjebok''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nordenberg, Bengt 1822 births 1902 deaths People from Blekinge County Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni 19th-century Swedish painters Swedish male painters Swedish genre painters Düsseldorf school of painting 19th-century Swedish male artists