Åsmund Esval (February 16, 1889 in Nes

Nes, Akershus

Nes is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Årnes.-Name:...

 in Romerike

Romerike

Romerike is a traditional district located north-east of Oslo, in what is today south-eastern Norway. It consists of the Akershus municipalities Fet, Lørenskog, Nittedal, Rælingen, Skedsmo, Sørum and Aurskog-Høland in the southern end , and Ullensaker, Gjerdrum, Nannestad, Nes, Eidsvoll and Hurdal...

, Norway

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...

 – October 17, 1971 in Oslo

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...

, Norway) was a Norwegian painter.

From 1909 to 1919, Esval was educated at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry

Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry

The Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry was established in 1818.In 1996 the National Academy of Craft and Art Industry became part of Oslo National Academy of the Arts .-Noted alumni:-External links:*...

. Esval trained at the Académie de l'Art Moderne in Paris under Othon Friesz

Othon Friesz

Achille-Émile Othon Friesz who later called himself just Othon Friesz , a native of Le Havre, was a French artist of the Fauvist movement....

 and Raoul Dufy

Raoul Dufy

Raoul Dufy[p] was a French Fauvist painter. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textiles, as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted for scenes of open-air social events...

 from 1919 to 1921. Esval studied at the Académie Scandinave  also called Maison Watteau in Paris under Per Krogh from 1926 to 1927, and at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts

Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts

The Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts is a Norwegian university offering studies in the areas of specialization painting, photography / video / film, digital art, sound art, sculpture, installation, performance art, and art theory.-History:...

 under Georg Jacobsen

Georg Jacobsen

Georg Jacobsen was a Danish painter.He studied under Viggo Johansen at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 1906 to 1911. He later spent time in Paris, from 1919 to 1935, as well as Italy and Spain. From 1935 to 1940 he worked at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts...

 1935-1937. Also during his career, Esval taught drawing at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry.

Esval was primarily a landscape painter that performed a series of quiet Norwegian landscapes constructed by geometric principles. Esval lived in several local farms in Gudbrandsdal

Gudbrandsdal

The Gudbrandsdalen is a valley and traditional district in the Norwegian county of Oppland. The valley is oriented in a north-westerly direction from Lillehammer at Mjøsa, extending 230 km toward Romsdal...

, Norway during the 1950s and 1960s. The painting Ringebu Kirke is an example of the many landscape scenes he obtained from the Norwegian valleys. In 1928, Esval made the stained glass windows of the Tang Chursh in Drammen

Drammen

Drammen is a city in Buskerud County, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the eastern and most populated part of Norway.-Location:...

, Norway.
Additionally Esval did portrait painting including subjects such as Ruth Maier

Ruth Maier

Ruth Maier was an Austrian woman whose diaries describing her experiences of the Holocaust in Austria and Norway were published in 2007 to generally favorable reviews, leading her to be described as "Norway's Anne Frank."Ruth Maier was born in Vienna to a largely assimilated Jewish family...

 who was a model for Esval during her time in Norway. Maier was an Austrian

Austrians

Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....

 woman whose diaries describing her experiences of the Holocaust in Austria and Norway were published in 2007 by Norwegian poet Jan Erik Vold

Jan Erik Vold

Jan Erik Vold is a Norwegian lyric poet, translator and author. He was a core member of the so-called "Profil generation", the circle attached to the literary magazine Profil. Throughout his career as an artist, he has had the ability to reach the public, both with his poetry and his political views...

, leading her to be described as "Norway's Anne Frank

Anne Frank

Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...

." Maier was deported to Auschwitz in November 1942, where she was killed on arrival, aged only twenty-two.

Beginning in 1928, Esval was a regular participant in the Autumn Exhibition or National Art Exhibition

Høstutstillingen

Høstutstillingen or Statens kunstutstilling is an annual art exhibition in Oslo, Norway. The exhibition is Norway's largest marking of contemporary art and takes place each autumn. It is arranged by Norske Billedkunstnere . The exhibition is set up on the basis of free submission...

 in Oslo. Esval is represented in the Norwegian National Gallery of Art, Norwegian National Touring Exhibitions and Norwegian Royal Gallery.