Name Henrik Sorensen | ||
Henrik sorensen underwatershoot for hasselblad
Henrik Sorensen (12 February 1882 – 24 February 1962) was a Norwegian painter.
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Personal life
Sorensen was born in Fryksande in Sweden as a son of Severin Sorensen and Helene Hoibraaten. He was married to Gudrun Klewe, and is father of physicist Sven Oluf Sorensen.
Painting career
Sorensen studied drawing at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry in Kristiania in 1904 and from 1906 to 1908. He studied with Kristian Zahrtmann in Copenhagen from 1904 to 1905, and became fascinated by the French impressionsists while studying at the art school Academie Colarossi in Paris during the autumn of 1905. He studied painting with Henri Matisse in Paris from 1908 to 1910. His breakthrough was the painting Svartbaekken from 1908. His painting Varieteartist from 1910 caused big headlines, and was bought by the Swedish painter and art collector Prince Eugen, Duke of Narke. He is represented in the National Gallery with several paintings, as well as in other Scandinavian museums, and has decorated a large wall at the Oslo City Hall.
He illustrated books by Jorgen Moe, Bjornstjerne Bjornson, Ragnhild Jolsen and Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, and painted portraits of the writers Ingeborg Refling Hagen (1932) and Sigurd Christiansen (1936). His painting Jodene (Israels folk) is from 1943. A painting by Sorensen was used on Norwegian 10 kroner notes from 1954 to 1973. He has painted altarpieces to the Linkoping Cathedral and the Hamar Cathedral.
During World War II he was held at the Grini concentration camp for one week, January–February 1945.
Legacy
In 1968 a memorial of Sorensen, made by sculptor Ragnhild Butenschon, was raised in Lillestrom. Galleries with works by Sorensen were later raised at two of his favourite painting locations, Holmsbu Billedgalleri in 1973, and Vinje Biletgalleri in Smorklepp in 1991.