Adolph Tidemand | |
|---|---|
Portrait byJulius Roeting, 1860 | |
| Born | (1814-08-14)14 August 1814 |
| Died | 8 August 1876(1876-08-08) (aged 61) |
| Education | Kunstakademie Düsseldorf |
| Known for | Painting |
| Notable work | Bridal Procession on the Hardangerfjord |
| Movement | Norwegian romantic nationalism |

Adolph Tidemand (14 August 1814 – 8 August 1876) was a notedNorwegian romantic nationalism painter. Among his best known paintings areHaugianerne (TheHaugeans; 1852) andBrudeferd i Hardanger (The Bridal Procession in Hardanger; 1848), painted in collaboration withHans Gude.[1]
Adolph Tidemand was born inMandal, Norway as the son of customs inspector andStorting representative Christen Tidemand (1779–1838) and Johanne Henriette Henrikke Haste (1779–1859). He received private art lessons in his home town and his talent was soon recognized. He then was enrolled in an art school in Christiania, moving on to Copenhagen in the period 1832–1837. Upon arrival in Copenhagen, he was rejected by theRoyal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and studied at a private school of art, but by 1833 he was a pupil at the Academy, earning Academy exhibitions in 1835 and 1836. He studied there for five years and then began a journey to Italy to study further. But when Tidemand came toDüsseldorf, Germany, he liked it so much that he settled down there.[2]
From 1837 until 1841 he continued his studies at the art academy in Düsseldorf, which at the time enjoyed widespread international recognition. He studied with and was influenced by his teacher,Theodor Hildebrandt. Here he prepared the well knownHjemvendte fiskere ved den sjællandske kyst (1838). The paintingGustav Vasa taler til dalalmuen i Mora kirke (1841) was sold to a German museum, but was later returned to Christiania. He is associated with theDüsseldorf school of painting.
In the autumn of 1841 he studied in Italy along with his brother Emil. Few of his works from this period remain, except for the pictureNapolitansk fisker (1842). Tidemand was preoccupied by Norwegian history, particularly after returning on a journey to Norway. During a journey to 1843 inHardanger, he met the 18-year-oldHans Gude. This resulted in a close friendship, and eventually they collaborated on several landscape paintings in which Tidemand painted the figures.

During 1842–1845 he traveled extensively in Norway (toØsterdalen,Gudbrandsdalen,Sogn,Hardanger andTelemark). More of his works survive from this period, includingEventyrfortellersken (1844),Søndagskveld i en hardangersk røkstue (1843) andGudstjeneste i en norsk landsens kirke (1845). In his later travels in southern Norway, the last in 1875, Tidemand studied folk costumes, domestic utensils and building and made himself familiar with oral traditions, folk tales and legends. His version of rusticity proved highly popular and in 1848 he was commissioned byOscar I, King of Sweden and Norway, to paint a series of Norwegian peasant life for the royal palace ofOscarshall, near Christiania.
Today Adolph Tidemand is best known for this depiction of Norwegian farm and culture and is counted among the first Norwegian historic painters. In Tidemand's paintings of the oldNorwegian farm culture, he portrayed the peasant with a new dignity, humane and culturally. TheNational Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (Nasjonalgalleriet) inOslo alone owns more than 100 of his works.[citation needed]
He married in 1845 with his childhood sweetheart, Claudine Marie Bergitte Jæger (1817–1887). The couple settled in Düsseldorf in 1845. Their only child, a son, Adolph, died in 1874 at 28 years of age.
Tidemand was awarded theRoyal Norwegian Order of St. Olav (Den Kongelige Norske St. Olavs Orden) in 1849, theFrench Legion of Honor (Légion d'honneur) in 1855 and the SwedishOrder of the Polar Star (Nordstjärneorden) in 1866.[3]
