Knud Bergslien

Knud Larsen Bergslien (May 15, 1827 – November 27, 1908) was a Norwegian painter, art teacher and master artist. In his art, he frequently portrayed the lives of the Norwegian people, their history and heroes of the past. Bergslien is most associated with his historical paintings, especially Skiing Birchlegs Crossing the Mountain with the Royal Child.

Knud Larsen Bergslien was born in Voss, in Hordaland, Norway. His parents were Lars Bergeson Bergslien and Kirsten Knutsdotter Gjelle. Knud Bergslien was the brother of sculptor Brynjulf Bergslien and uncle of painter and sculptor Nils Bergslien. Monuments honoring the three famous Bergslien artists now exist in Bergslien park located in Voss, Hordaland.

Knud Bergslien enlisted in the army when he was 18 years old, but his unusual gift for drawing was soon noticed. After having been a student at the artist Hans Reusch's school of drawing in Bergen, he continued his studies abroad. Bergslien studied in Antwerpen from 1844 to 1852, in Paris from 1850 to 1851 and Düsseldorf from 1855 to 1869. He belonged to the Düsseldorf school of painting and was closely associated with follow artists Hans Fredrik Gude and Adolph Tidemand.

Norwegian artist Johan Fredrik Eckersberg had established an art school on Lille Grensen in Christiania (now Oslo) in 1859. After his death in 1870, the school would be continued by Knud Bergslien together with Morten Müller. Knud Bergslien served as the director of what became the Bergslien School of Painting (Bergsliens Malerskole). A whole generation of Norwegian painters became his students, among them Harriet Backer and Edvard Munch. Some of his students emigrated to America including the Norwegian-American artists, Lars Jonson Haukaness, Carl L. Boeckmann and Herbjørn Gausta.

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