Alfredo Andersen

Alfred Emil Andersen, known as Alfredo (3 November 1860, Kristiansand - 9 August 1935, Curitiba) was a Norwegian-born painter, sculptor, scenographer and art professor, who spent most of his life in Brazil. He is sometimes referred to as the "Father of painting of Paraná".

Life and work His father, Tobias Andersen, was a captain in the merchant marine. He created his first painting at the age of thirteen. He began his formal studies at the age of seventeen, in Christiania (Oslo) at the Academy of Fine Arts, under the direction of Wilhelm Krogh (1829–1913). He would be Krogh's assistant from 1877 to 1879. After that, he attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, while working as a drawing teacher at an elementary school. He graduated in 1883 and returned to Christiania, where he took private lessons from Olaf Isaachsen. He decided to go back to South America, first to Buenos Aires, then to Brazil, where he settled in Paranaguá in 1893.

There, he met Anna de Oliveira, a Native-American woman of Carijó ancestry, who was much younger than him. Eventually, they began living together. In 1902, they moved to Curitiba and had four children, including Thorstein Andersen (1905–1964), who also became a painter. Four years later, he died of pneumonia.

In 1959, the government of Paraná turned his home into an official art school and museum. Later, it was added to the Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico do Estado and, in 1979, it became the .