
Henning Engelsen (5 February 1918 – 8 September 2005) was a Norwegian woodcarver and illustrator.
Biography
Henning Engelsen was born at
Sandefjord
Sandefjord () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Vestfold. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Sandefjord ...
in
Vestfold
Vestfold () is a county and a current electoral district in Norway. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it borders Buskerud and Telemark counties. The county administration is located in Tønsberg, Norway's oldest city, and the larg ...
, Norway.
He started his
woodcarving career in 1947 in a small workshop at
Toten
Toten is a Districts of Norway, traditional district in Innlandet county in the eastern part of Norway. It consists of the municipalities Østre Toten and Vestre Toten.
The combined population of Toten is approximately 27,000. The largest town ...
in the eastern part of
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
, where he founded the wood carving compan
HENNING From the start his idea was to create a world of wood carved figures that radiate joy and humanity and inspire us to rise above the ordinary. His rich and manifold production counts hundreds of different motives, illustrating animal life, myths and Norwegian folklore.
During the 1950s and 1960s HENNING grew steadily and was soon to be the leading enterprise on the Norwegian souvenir market, exporting figurines to all over the world. At the time, Engelsen had more than 25 craftsmen working in his studio. He ran HENNING with great success until 1988.
Two of his three daughters; Christl Engelsen, Angelina Engelsen and his son-in-law, Bjarne Espedal, are now running the workshop, keeping Engelsens manifold production alive. His third daughter is the sculptor Elena Engelsen, who was married to sculptor and graphic artist
Per Ung (1933–2013).
References
External links
HENNING homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Engelsen, Henning
Norwegian woodcarvers
20th-century Norwegian illustrators
21st-century Norwegian illustrators
20th-century Norwegian sculptors
21st-century Norwegian sculptors
2005 deaths
1918 births
People from Sandefjord