Halfdan Egedius

Halfdan Egedius was born on May 5, 1877, in Drammen. An artistic prodigy of astonishing maturity, he began attending Bergslien's art school at age nine and exhibited at the Autumn Exhibition in Christiania at sixteen.

Drawn to the folk culture and summer light of Telemark, Egedius painted lyrical masterworks such as Sommernatt (Summer Night) and Spill og dans (Music and Dance). In 1896, art historian Erik Werenskiold selected the nineteen-year-old Egedius to create illustrations for the Jubilee edition of Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla (Sagas of the Kings). His dramatic, psychologically intense ink drawings defined the heroic Viking age for generations before he died of actinomycosis at just twenty-one.