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 ...
,
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 ...
. Since 2003 it is administratively a part of the
National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design
The National Museum (, officially the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design) is a museum in Oslo, Norway which holds the Norwegian state's public collection of art, architecture, and design objects. The collection totals over 400,000 w ...
.
History
It was established in 1842 following a
parliamentary
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
decision from 1836. Originally located in the
Royal Palace, Oslo
The Royal Palace ( or ''Det kongelige slott'') in Oslo was built in the first half of the 19th century as the Norwegian residence of the Kingdom of France, French-born Charles XIV John, who reigned as king of Union between Sweden and Norway, Nor ...
, it got its own museum building in 1882, designed by Heinrich Ernst and Adolf Schirmer. Former names of the museum include ''Den norske stats sentralmuseum for billedkunst'' and from 1903 to 1920 ''Statens Kunstmuseum''. Directors include
Jens Thiis
Jens Thiis (12 May 1870 – 27 June 1942) was a Norwegian Art history, art historian, conservator and a prominent museum director. He was conservator at the Nordenfjeld Industrial Arts Museum (''Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum'') in Tron ...
(1908–1941), Sigurd Willoch (1946–1973), Knut Berg (1975–1995), Tone Skedsmo (1995–2000) and Anniken Thue (2001–2003).
That the gallery had erroneously been labeled as technically unfit for paintings was reported in 2013. (A previous study—about the museums—''tåleevne'') had never concluded about the fitness level, and Norway's parliament had been misinformed about conclusions that in reality did not exist. )
In 2016 the price for admission doubled overnight.
The museum collection was moved to a new building, opened in 11 June 2022, gathering all sections of the National Gallery, except architecture. The architect of the new building, located on the harbor front, and part of the Fjordbyen development, is the German firm Kleihues + Kleihues ( de).
Erik Werenskiold
Erik Theodor Werenskiold (11 February 1855 – 23 November 1938) was a Norwegian painter and illustrator. He is especially known for his drawings for the
Asbjørnsen and Moe collection of '' Norske Folkeeventyr'', and his illustrations for ...
and
Christian Krohg
Christian Krohg (13 August 1852 – 16 October 1925) was a Norwegian naturalist painter, illustrator, author and journalist. Krohg was inspired by the realism art movement and often chose motifs from everyday life. He was the director and s ...
as well as works by
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch ( ; ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work ''The Scream'' has become one of Western art's most acclaimed images.
His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dread of inher ...
including ''
The Scream
''The Scream'' is an art composition created by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1893. The Norwegian name of the piece is ('Screaming, Scream'), and the German title under which it was first exhibited is ' ('The Scream of Nature'). The agonize ...
'' and one version of his ''
Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...
''.
The museum also has old master European paintings by painters such as
El Greco
Doménikos Theotokópoulos (, ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (; "The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. ...
,
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder ( ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is known for his portraits, both of German ...
Orazio Gentileschi
Orazio Lomi Gentileschi (; 1563 – 7 February 1639) was an Italian painter. Born in Tuscany, he began his career in Rome, painting in a Mannerist style, much of his work consisting of painting the figures within the decorative schemes of other ...
,
Artemisia Gentileschi
Artemisia Lomi Gentileschi ( ; ; 8 July 1593) was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished 17th century, 17th-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing professional ...
,
Andrea Locatelli
Andrea Locatelli (19 December 1695 – 19 February 1741)Michel, Olivier (2003). "Locatelli, Andrea". Grove Art Online. was an Italian painter of landscapes (vedute).
Locatelli (he spelled it Lucatelli) was born in Rome in 1695, as stat ...
Ferdinand Bol
Ferdinand Bol (24 June 1616 - 24 August 1680) was a Dutch painter, etcher and draftsman. Although his surviving work is rare, it displays Rembrandt's influence; like his master, Bol favored historical subjects, portraits, numerous self-portraits, ...
Jacob van der Ulft
Jacob van der Ulft (; 1621–1689) was a Dutch painter, glass painter, print artist, architect and mayor. He was known for his architectural and city views, landscapes and topographical views.Cornelis Bisschop (''Seamstress'') and
Jan van Goyen
Jan Josephszoon van Goyen (; 13 January 1596 – 27 April 1656) was a Dutch landscape painter. The scope of his landscape subjects was very broad as he painted forest landscapes, marine paintings, river landscapes, beach scenes, winter landscap ...
. There are also 19th and 20th Century International paintings by
Armand Guillaumin
Armand Guillaumin (; February 16, 1841 – June 26, 1927) was a French Impressionist painter and lithographer.
Biography Early years
Born Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin in Paris, he worked at his uncle's lingerie shop while attending even ...
,
Carl Sohn
Karl Ferdinand Sohn (10 December 1805 in Berlin – 25 November 1867 in Cologne) was a German painter of the Düsseldorf school of painting.
Biography
He was born in Berlin and started his studies at the age of eighteen under Friedrich Wilhelm ...
,
Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; ; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French people, French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionism, Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially femininity, fe ...
,
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...
(''Rainy Day, Etretat''),
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...
, and
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...
. There are also Norwegian paintings by
Adolph Tidemand
Adolph Tidemand (14 August 18148 August 1876) was a noted Norwegian romantic nationalism painter. Among his best known paintings are ''Haugianerne'' (''The Haugeans''; 1852) and '' Brudeferd i Hardanger'' (''The Bridal Procession in Hardanger' ...
,
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 Ro ...
,
Harriet Backer
Harriet Backer (21 January 1845 – 25 March 1932) was a Norwegian painter who achieved recognition in her own time and was a pioneer among female artists both in the Nordic countries and in Europe generally. She is best known for her detailed ...
List of largest art museums
Art museums are some of the largest buildings in the world. The world's most pre-eminent museums have also engaged in various expansion projects through the years, expanding their total exhibition space.
List
The following is a list of art mus ...
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 ...