Frits Thaulow Artist, Paintings and Biography

This master represents a galaxy of Norwegian artists of world renown. The future talent came to the world born in 1847 in Christiania, the former name of today’s Oslo.

Thaulow comes from the middle-class family; his father worked as a pharmacist. Frits’ talent showed up quite early; since 1970, for two years, he studied painting in Copenhagen with the marine painter Carl Frederik Sørensen. After that, he continued his artistic education in Karlsruhe with the romantic artist Hans Gude. This representative of the famous Düsseldorf art school became well-known as both marine painter and landscape master.

Both teachers of the future master conveyed to him a true love for the native nature; as a result, his first works were created in the marina style. Moving to Paris and acquainting with the French Impressionists affected the painter's creative style as well as his perception of reality significantly. His works reflected not only the desire for a realistic transfer of the object, but also a purely impressionistic sense of color.

In all his future works, even those created in an obvious realistic style, to some degree, the clearly seen influence of impressionism was presented. This could be noticed in the tiny strokes conveying the water movement, in the special combination of tones and the general feeling of fresh space and air, filling his paintings.

Until 1880, Thaulow often spent his time in a creative colony of painters of Scandinavian origin, basing in Denmark, in Skagen on the Jutland peninsula. After that, he returned to his homeland, to become one of the leading Norwegian artists.

Together with the other prominent representatives of the art world of that time, Thaulow defended the idea of the independent art value and its being much higher than just a way of satisfying the people’s practical needs.

In 1882, he became a co-founder of the Modern Art Exhibition, which was planned to be the annual event.

During that period, the master actively worked on urban landscapes with people, depicting their everyday life in Oslo. He also created the perfect works on a winter theme depicting different types of snow, that made him famous.

Ten years later, the master returned to live in France, and, after another seven years, having visited the United States of America, he made a final decision to settle in Paris.

Taulow was one of the very limited number of artists who were lucky to get recognized and reach financial well-being during the lifetime. He never lived in poverty, and his works ended up in the best art galleries. The artist passed away in 1906, at the age of only 59, in Holland.

The creative heritage of the master impresses, many of his works are currently kept in the largest art galleries not only in his native country, but also in many other countries, as well as stored in the numerous private collections. For sure, this artist is one of the most famous masters of the northern country, which provided a lot of big names to the art world.