Alf Gabriel Næsheim (18 February 1926, Stavanger - 25 December 2014, Bærum) was a Norwegian painter and illustrator, mostly known for his architectural drawings from the city of

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, but also for being the first Norwegian artist that illustrated

Disney comic book Disney comics are comic books and comic strips featuring characters created by the Walt Disney Company, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck. The first Disney comics were newspaper strips appearing from 1930 on, starting with t ...

stories featuring

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. Donald is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit, sailor shirt and cap with ...

. Næsheim was born and grew up in

Stavanger Stavanger, officially the Stavanger Municipality, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the third largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the ...

. He moved to Oslo in 1945, where he was employed as an illustrator for the

Aftenposten (; ; stylized as in the masthead) is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation as well as Norway's newspaper of record. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 daily copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen ...

newspaper until retiring in 1995. He also illustrated the sports section of the

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

newspaper between 1968 and 1981, as well as having shorter contracts with

Stavanger Aftenblad (; ) or simply ''Aftenbladet'' is a daily newspaper based in Stavanger, Norway, and owned by Schibsted Media Group. Norwegian owners held 42 percent of the shares in Schibsted at the end of 2015. is thus majority foreign-owned. History and ...

and

Jærbladet ''Jærbladet'' is a Norwegian local newspaper published in Bryne, at Jæren in county Rogaland. It covers the three municipalities: Time, Hå and Klepp. It is issued three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It started in 1949. The newspap ...

. He was educated at Statens håndverks- og kunstindustriskole in Oslo 1945–1950,

Académie de la Grande Chaumière The Académie de la Grande Chaumière () is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France. History The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the A ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

1947 and Goldsmiths College of Art in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

1951. His debut as a

graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of the data, as in design and manufa ...

artist was in 1948, and he held his first separate exhibition in 1985 at

Hå Hå is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is the southernmost municipality in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the v ...

old priestyard in 1985. His father was the painter Sverre Næsheim (1900–1976). Alf Gabriel was the brother of the illustrator Egil Torin Næsheim (born 1937) and the father of the artist Yngve Næsheim (born 1960).

Donald Duck-incident

In the 1960s, he worked for an advertising agency, having contracted the ''Hjemmet'' weekly publishing company, whose editor Ernst Gervin asked Næsheim to write stories for the weekly comic ''Donald Duck & Co'' (Norwegian). Næsheim then created the "Vending machine mystery" (in Norwegian, "Automatmysteriet", Næsheims manuscript, November 1968) and "Manko i Regnskapet" (Gervins manuscript, January 1969). The copyrights were sold to the Danish Gutenberghus, and the stories were published in other Nordic countries as well as in Germany. Næsheim turned down the offer from Gutenberghus to become a regular writer, turning out around 20 stories a year.

Awards

*2. prize in the VII. Int. Exhibition of Sports Illustrations 1983 *Oslo Artist Award (Oslo Bys kunstnerpris) 1992 for his 10-volume series ''Kristiania i Oslo'' __NOTOC__

Publications

* * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naesheim, Alf 1926 births 2014 deaths Norwegian comics writers Norwegian graphic artists 20th-century Norwegian illustrators 21st-century Norwegian illustrators Sports cartoonists Norwegian male painters Norwegian editorial cartoonists Norwegian advertising artists and illustrators Disney comics writers Norwegian non-fiction writers Artists from Stavanger Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière