Asta Nørregaard

Asta Nørregaard (13 August 1853 – 23 March 1933) was a Norwegian painter who was best known for her portraits.

Biography

Nørregaard was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. She was the daughter of Hans Peter Nørregaard (1818–1872) and Elise Jacobine Hesselberg (1821–1853). She and an older sister were orphaned early and both remained unmarried.

Nørregaard received her early education at the Knud Bergslien painting school; one of her classmates was Harriet Backer. From 1875 to 1878 she was a pupil of Eilif Peterssen in Munich. During 1879, she studied in Paris.

Nørregaard held solo exhibitions at Blomqvist Kunsthandel in 1893, 1903, 1913 and 1925. She was also a frequent exhibitor at group exhibitions: Salon de Paris in 1881 and 1882, and world exhibitions in Antwerp in 1885 and Paris 1889. She received the King's Medal of Merit in gold in 1920.

Her work is exhibited at the Munch Museum, Oslo City Museum, University of Oslo and National Gallery in Oslo. Nørregaard was included in the touring 2018 exhibit Women in Paris 1850-1900, which was organized by the American Federation of Arts. In 2026, the National Museum of Norway presented almost 50 of the painter’s key works in a major retrospective, “Asta Norregaard: Truth and Beauty".

Selected works Paul Breder, 1879 Anette Birch 1882 L'attente de Christ 1881 Maggie Plahte, 1881 Maggie reiseklar, 1881 Asta Norregaard Fransk kjokkeninterior, 1881 Villiers-le-Bel, 1881 Carl Paul Caspari, 1885 Edvard Munch, 1885 Gisle Johnson, 1885 Musikkinteriør, 1885 Bondekone fra Normandie, ca. 1887–89 Angelo, 1888 Lesende dame ved vindu, 1888 Midnattsmesse i et fransk kloster, 1888–89 Elisabeth Fearnley, 1892 Martine Cappelen Hjort, 1897 Dagny Kiær, 1899 Niels August Andresen Butenschøn, 1900 Marie Andresen Butenschøn, 1904 Harald Løvenskiold, 1905

Portraits