Frederik Collett
Encyclopedia
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
painter, perhaps most associated with his winter pictures from the region around Lillehammer
Lillehammer
is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway, globally known for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. As of May 2011, the population of the town of Lillehammer was...
, Norway.
Background
Collett grew up in a prominent family of politicians and officials. He was the grandson of Norwegian statesman, Jonas CollettJonas Collett
Jonas Collett was a Norwegian civil servant and politician. Being known as one of the "Eidsvoll men", he played an important role in the events of Norway in 1814....
. He was the only child of Johan Collett (1800-1877) and Marie Frederikke Thomason (1810-1839). His mother died three days after his birth. Frederik Collett wanted to learn more about painting, and together with his father, he visited Hans Gude
Hans Gude
Hans Fredrik Gude was a Norwegian romanticist painter and is considered along with Johan Christian Dahl to be one of Norway's foremost landscape painters...
in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
. It was the start of an 8 year long education in art.
Career
He had a small annuity which made him financially independent. Frederik Collett settled in LillehammerLillehammer
is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway, globally known for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. As of May 2011, the population of the town of Lillehammer was...
, and worked as a painter. Collett traveled extensively throughout his life, but he also had a small apartment in Christiania
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
. Travels often went to the same destination, Florø
Florø
is a town and the administrative centre of Flora municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It is also a former municipality that existed for just over 100 years. The town was founded on the Florelandet island between the Botnafjorden and Solheimsfjorden by royal decree in 1860. In...
, Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
, Jæren
Jæren
Jæren is a traditional district in the county of Rogaland. The others are Dalane, Ryfylke and Haugalandet.Jæren is the largest flat lowland area in Norway, stretching from the municipality of Randaberg in the north to Hå in the south. The coast is flat compared to the rest of the Norwegian coast,...
, Porsgrunn
Porsgrunn
is a town and municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Porsgrunn....
, and Lillehammer
Lillehammer
is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway, globally known for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. As of May 2011, the population of the town of Lillehammer was...
. In winter, he was in the interior, while in summer by the sea. Collett attended the annual Autumn Exhibition in Oslo (Høstutstillingen) 14 times from 1885 to 1912. Collett was also among the Norwegian painters who represented Norway at the major exhibitions abroad, including world exhibitions in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
(1889 and 1900) and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
(1893), Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
and St. Petersburg, (1897).
From the 1860s until the middle of the 1870s Collett's work was strongly influenced by Gude and German Romanticism. In 1861 he went on a study trip together with Hans Gude and Peter Nicolai Arbo
Peter Nicolai Arbo
Peter Nicolai Arbo was a Norwegian painter, who specialized in painting motifs from Norwegian history and images from Norse mythology...
. In the autumn of 1862 Hans Gude set off for the Lledr Valley
Lledr Valley
The Lledr Valley is a valley in Snowdonia in north Wales. It runs from the top of the Crimea Pass, north of Blaenau Ffestiniog down to Betws-y-coed....
near Conwy
Conwy
Conwy is a walled market town and community in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales. The town, which faces Deganwy across the River Conwy, formerly lay in Gwynedd and prior to that in Caernarfonshire. Conwy has a population of 14,208...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, a place renowned for its picturesque scenery. Frederik Collett, together with Adolph Tidemand
Adolph Tidemand
Adolph Tidemand was a noted Norwegian romantic nationalism painter. Among his best known paintings are Haugianerne and Brudeferd i Hardanger with Hans Gude.-Biography:Adolph Tidemand was born in Mandal, Norway as the son of customs inspector and Storting representative...
, visited Gude where the three traveled to Caernarvon and Holyhead
Holyhead
Holyhead is the largest town in the county of Anglesey in the North Wales. It is also a major port adjacent to the Irish Sea serving Ireland....
. Collett's painting Fra Wales (From Wales), from 1863 resulted from that trip.
Frederik Collett never married. From the 1890s, he was a natural center of a circle of artists. He maintained close friendships with fellow painters Erik Werenskiold
Erik Werenskiold
Erik Theodor Werenskiold was a Norwegian painter and illustrator. He is especially known for his drawings for the...
, Lars Jorde
Lars Jorde
Lars Jorde was a Norwegian painter.He was born in Vang, but eventually settled in Lillehammer. He studied under Gerhard Munthe, Alfred Philippe Roll, Eilif Peterssen and Harriet Backer, and Kristian Zahrtmann...
and Gerhard Munthe
Gerhard Munthe (painter)
Gerhard Peter Frantz Munthe was a Norwegian painter and illustrator.-Background:Munthe was born in Elverum to physician Christopher Pavels Munthe and his wife Christine Margrethe Pavels Aabel . He was a brother of historian Hartvig Andreas Munthe, writer Margrethe Munthe and military officer...
. Of his total production, some 230 paintings have been recorded.
Selected works
- Fra Wales, 1863
- Måneskinn ved Kuxhavn, 1866
- Kanalbilde, 1872
- Gran med sne, 1875
- Det gamle rikshospital, 1877
- Sommerlandskap med høns, 1879
- Fra Grez, 1879
- Ved Mesnas utløp, 1881