Portrait of Frederik Collett by Frits Thaulow

Frederik Jonas Lucian Bothfield Collett (25 March 1839 – 19 April 1914) was a Norwegian painter, perhaps most associated with his winter pictures from the region around Lillehammer, Norway.

Background

Collett was born at Christiania, Norway. He grew up in a prominent family of politicians and officials. He was the son of Justice Johan Collett (1800–1877) and Marie Frederikke Thomason (1810–1839). He was the grandson of Norwegian statesman,

Jonas Collett Jonas Collett (25 March 1772 – 3 January 1851) was a Danish-Norwegian public official, legislator, and statesman. Born on the Rønnebæksholm estate at Næstved in Denmark, he remained in Norway after the termination of the personal union with De ...

.Collett
'Store norske leksikon'' He was the only child of Johan Collett (1800-1877) and Marie Frederikke Thomason (1810-1839). His mother died three days after his birth. Frederik Collett wanted to learn more about painting, and together with his father, he visited

Hans Gude Hans Fredrik Gude (March 13, 1825August 17, 1903) was a Norwegian romanticist painter and is considered along with Johan Christian Dahl to be one of Norway's foremost landscape painters. He has been called a mainstay of Norwegian National Roma ...

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 ...

. It was the start of an 8 year long education in art.

Career

He had a small annuity which made him financially independent. Frederik Collett settled in Lillehammer, and worked as a painter. Collett traveled extensively throughout his life, but he also had a small apartment in Christiania. Travels often went to the same destination,

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, and Lillehammer. In winter, he was in the interior, while in summer by the sea. Collett attended the annual Autumn Exhibition in Oslo (''

Høstutstillingen Høstutstillingen or Statens kunstutstilling ( English: ''The Autumn Exhibition'' or ''National Art Exhibition'') is an annual art exhibition in Oslo, Norway. The exhibition is Norway's largest marking of contemporary art and takes place each a ...

'') 14 times from 1885 to 1912. Collett was also among the Norwegian painters who represented Norway at the major exhibitions abroad, including world exhibitions in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

(1889 and 1900) and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

(1893), Stockholm and

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, (1897). From the 1860s until the middle of the 1870s Collett's work was strongly influenced by Gude and German Romanticism. In 1861 he went on a study trip together with Hans Gude and

Peter Nicolai Arbo Peter Nicolai Arbo (18 June 1831 – 14 October 1892) was a Norwegian historical painter, who specialized in portraits and allegorical scenes from Norwegian history and the Norse mythology. He is most noted for ''The Wild Hunt of Odin'', a d ...

. In the autumn of 1862 Hans Gude set off for the

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near

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Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, a place renowned for its picturesque scenery. Frederik Collett, together with Adolph Tidemand, visited Gude where the three traveled to Caernarvon and Holyhead. Collett's painting ''Fra Wales'' (1863) resulted from that trip. From the 1890s, he was a natural center of a circle of artists. He maintained close friendships with fellow painters Erik Werenskiold, Lars Jorde and

Gerhard Munthe Gerhard Peter Frantz Munthe (19 July 1849 in Elverum, Hedmark – 15 January 1929 in Lysaker, Bærum) was a Norwegian painter and illustrator. Background Munthe was born in Elverum to physician Christopher Pavels Munthe (1816–1884) and his ...

. Of his total production, some 230 paintings have been recorded.

Personal life

Frederik Collett never married. He died at Gjørlia ved Lillehammer in

Oppland Oppland is a former county in Norway which existed from 1781 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020. The old Oppland county bordered the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. Th ...

Selected works

* ''Fra Wales'', 1863 * ''Måneskinn ved Kuxhavn'', 1866 * ''Kanalbilde'', 1872 * ''Gran med sne'', 1875 * ''Det gamle rikshospital'', 1877 * ''Sommerlandskap med høns'', 1879 * ''Fra Grez'', 1879 * ''Ved Mesnas utløp'', 1881

References

Norwegian people of English descent 1839 births 1914 deaths 19th-century Norwegian painters 20th-century Norwegian painters Norwegian male painters Frederik 19th-century Norwegian male artists 20th-century Norwegian male artists {{Norway-painter-stub