Oda Krohg

Oda Krohg was a Norwegian visual artist born in 1860 in Åsgårdstrand and died in 1935 in Oslo. She was an independent woman who broke the norms and rules of her time, got divorced, had children out of wedlock, and chose artistic education.

Oda was a student of the established artist Christian Krohg, who later became her husband. She painted several portraits, including of women's advocate Margrethe Vullum and Aasta Hansteen. Oda Krohg came from an intellectual bourgeois family in Christiania, where all the sisters received schooling in artistic activities such as music, needlework and visual arts. She was criticized for having only one formal art education with Christian Krohg, but nevertheless she inspired many and was used as a model for other artists and as a literary character.

Oda Krohg was a fearless woman who took part in discussions about social conditions, and she was part of the so-called Kristiania bohemian, a movement that asked questions about contemporary double standards and unfair class systems. Oda was portrayed and used as a model for others in the visual arts. You will also find her as a literary character. Hans Jæger's character Vera in the trilogy Sick Love, Confessions and Prison and Despair has many features in common with Oda Krohg. She may also have been the inspiration for Thora in Jappe Nilssen's novel Nemesis and Sigbjørn Obstfelder's Rebekka in Korset. Gunnar Heiberg, with whom Oda lived in the years 1897–1902 in Paris, may have used her as a model for Julie in The Balcony and Karen in The Tragedy of Love. Oda and Christian forever and always <3 After the relationship with Heiberg ended, Oda and Christian Krohg got back together, and Christian painted several portraits of his loved one. Previously, he had painted one of the most beautiful portraits in Norwegian art history: the painter Oda Krohg. A woman beaming, with a big smile, wearing a red blouse and her hair falling loosely down her shoulders. This is the woman Krohg was so in love with!