Amaldus Nielsen is a Norwegian painter

Norwegian painter who wholeheartedly loved the grandeur and beauty of the harsh Scandinavian nature

Amaldus Nielsen (May 23, 1838 December 10, 1932) is a famous Norwegian painter of the XIX XX centuries, an outstanding master of the landscape genre. Amaldus Nielsen mainly painted pictures of Scandinavian nature in a realistic style. The best masterpieces of his work are now kept in the museums of Oslo, where the painter lived most of his life. The master’s biography is closely connected with his native Norway, although in his youth he still managed to visit several European countries.

Amaldus Nielsen, along with Adolph Tidemand, is rightfully considered one of the greatest exponents of Norwegian romantic painting. He achieved recognition early in his homeland and over the years has consistently participated in national as well as international exhibitions, receiving well-deserved awards for his work.

Biography of Amaldus Nielsen

Amaldus Nielsen was born on May 23, 1838 in the city of Mandal in southern Norway in a very wealthy family. He was the youngest of six brothers and sisters of a sea skipper and merchant, and his mother’s ancestors were wealthy Danish merchants. At the age of seven, the boy lost his father and the family trading business passed to his mother, who until then was exclusively engaged in raising children and was poorly versed in the intricacies of commerce.

Since childhood, Amaldus loved to draw and enjoyed taking lessons from a local artist after school, but in high school he had to quit these classes and get a job in order to support his family financially. As a teenager, Nielsen dreamed of becoming a sailor, but his mother insisted that he enter the Academy of Arts in Copenhagen and in 1854 the young man left for the capital of Denmark.

During the year Amaldus attended preparatory painting courses at the academy, after which he was enrolled as a student in an educational institution. While still in his first year, he took part in an academic exhibition for the first time and his work was favorably received by critics. And after completing his second year in 1857, Nielsen received an invitation from his compatriot Hans Fredrik Gude, who served as a professor at the Higher School of Arts in Dusseldorf, to continue his studies with him and left for Germany.

But the academic style of teaching did not suit the young artist, as he wanted to spend more time in nature, and not in classrooms.

Therefore, in 1859, without graduating from the academy, Amaldus returned to his native Norway. Here he finally had the opportunity to fully engage in plein air painting, and Nielsen traveled a lot, visiting beautiful places and creating sketches.

In 1860, the artist made his longest trip in his life he visited the south of Spain, but he spent only a few months here, after which he returned home. And in 1863, Amaldus Nielsen went to Karlsruhe, where by that time his teacher Hans Frederic Gude was teaching at the academy. Not having lived in Germany for six months, the painter fell ill with pneumonia and had to lie in bed for several months, after which he decided to return to his native land forever.

In March 1864 he came to Christiania and never left Norway again.

By that time, Amaldus had already acquired the fame of an outstanding landscape painter, his works were constantly exhibited at exhibitions, and customers paid good money for the paintings. His career developed successfully, and his financial situation gradually improved.

In 1868, Nielsen married August Wangensten and soon moved with his young wife to a spacious wooden villa on the outskirts of the Norwegian capital. In his marriage, he had eleven children, and the artist led a measured, happy life with his relatives, enjoying a family idyll until 1886, when his wife and three children died during an epidemic of diphtheria.

Shocked by the terrible loss, Nielsen fell into a severe depression and could not draw for almost two years. But, fortunately, in 1888 he met Laura Tandberg, and the girl managed to return the master’s interest in life. The artist married a second time, and his chosen one became a loving stepmother for his children. Together they lived happily for 44 years until the painter’s death.

The brilliant landscape painter, unlike most of his colleagues, preferred to live in solitude and avoided noisy companies. He devoted most of his time to plein-air painting, and his paintings were eagerly bought by Norwegian art connoisseurs. The authorities of Christiania have repeatedly organized personal exhibitions of the master, and the king awarded him the Order of St. Olaf of the 1st degree.

The Norwegian painter lived a long life and did not stop working even at a very respectable age.

It seemed to those around him that he would live up to the centenary without any problems, but on December 10, 1932, Amaldus Nielsen died of pneumonia in his villa, surrounded by relatives. At that time he was 94 years old and few of the artists can compare with the brilliant Norwegian in terms of life expectancy.

The most famous paintings by Amaldus Nielsen

During his career, the great landscape painter painted hundreds of beautiful works of art, which today attract viewers to museums and exhibitions. And yet, the most famous paintings by Amaldus Nielsen are:

• “View of the Fjord” (1890) a colorful landscape depicting a quiet corner of nature away from the bustling city. Only a few sailing boats and a figure of a lonely peasant woman disturb the calmness of a fine summer day.
• “On the Fjord” (1892) is a painting painted in cold gray-blue tones, which amazes the viewer with the serenity of the endless sea surface. Against the backdrop of a spacious fjord, fishing boats gently sway on the waves, emphasizing the grandeur and beauty of the Scandinavian landscape.
• People on the Beach (1894) is a work in which two distant figures of Norwegian peasants on a deserted shore seem literally lost in time. The sandy Norwegian beach is absolutely different from the sultry Mediterranean vacation spots, but it is beautiful and very attractive in its own way.
• Morning (1900) is one of the few urban landscapes in the work of the master. Surrounded by wooden houses and large trees, the viewer can see in the distance the figure of the author behind an easel with a palette in hand.

Amaldus Nielsen devoted his entire life to glorifying the beauty of his native Norway and achieved great success in painting. He left a noticeable mark on the European fine arts of the 19th 20th centuries and presented to mankind many colorful masterpieces.