Norge fremstillet i Tegninger and Christian Tønsberg

The editor, Nils Christian Tønsberg (1813-1897), was born in Bergen, but lived in Christiania (Oslo) his adult life.

He ran an auction house in Christiania from 1844, and became a publisher as well, the same year.  He concentrated originally on judicial literature, but expanded shortly thereafter to novels (Henrik Wergeland among others).

Tønsberg became strongly influenced by the National Romantic period and was eager to establish a co-operation between the different art forms. He gathered and published the material in Norge fremstillet i Tegninger (Sketches of Norway) (1846-1848, second edition 1853-1855). The sketches were drawn by some of the most famous of Norwegian artists. The texts accompanying the illustrations, were written among others by P. Chr. Asbjørnsen, a famous Norwegian writer representing the National Romantic period. Tønsberg continued publishing similar books over the next years.

In this exhibition we are showing the illustrations and the texts from the 1853/1855 edition of Norge fremstillet i Tegninger.

The web-edition

There are two entrances into the exhibition, either by geography or by artist. 
The link 'Vis fylke' lists all the Norwegian counties represented in the book, while 'Vis maler' lists the artists and the sketches each one of them made. To view the image, click on the title of the sketch. Above each image, there are links to the text and also to a short biography of the artist.
You can also browse the images by clicking 'Bla i boka' from the menu, or use the top links above the images, 'Forrige bilde' (previous image) and 'Neste bilde' (next image).