Jens Thiis

Jens Thiis (12 May 1870 – 27 June 1942) was a Norwegian art historian, conservator and a prominent museum director. He was conservator at the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum (Museum of Arts and Crafts) in Trondheim beginning in 1895 and director of the National Gallery in Oslo from 1908 to 1941.

He was unusually alert to the trends of his time. In 1907, when at the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum in Trondheim, he engaged Henry van de Velde, now considered one of the foremost stylists of his time, to design an Art Nouveau display room and all its furniture and furnishings. The Henry van de Velde Room is unique in its kind, being specially designed for this purpose. It was later recreated on the premises of the new Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum.

As director of the National Gallery he bought French contemporary art (Monet among others) and thus made a solid base for the French collection that is now one of the gallery's main attractions.

He was awarded honorary citizenship of Florence for his works on the Florentine Renaissance.

Thiis was the father of Ragna Stang and Helge Thiis.

Mæhle, Ole (1970) Jens Thiis, En kunstens forkjemper, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo. 357 pages.

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