Betzy Akersloot-Berg

Betzy Rezora Akersloot-Berg (16 December 1850 – 18 December 1922) was a Norwegian-born seascape and landscape painter who spent most of her career on the Dutch island of Vlieland in Friesland.

Biography She was born in the village of Aurskog in Akershus, Norway. Her parents, Casper Cristiansen Berg (1828-1914) and Bartha Nordbye (1829-1912) were landowners. Later, they moved to Christiania (now Oslo) where her father became a businessman.

Originally, she trained as a nurse, then worked as a combination nurse and missionary among the Sami in Finnmark.

During a trip to Vienna, she saw some works by the Dutch marine painter, Hendrik Willem Mesdag, which greatly impressed her. In 1885, she had a chance meeting with him and his family. This led to studies with him at his workshop in The Hague.

"Tromp's Huys" became a museum in 1956. Most of her approximately 300 works are kept there and sent out for exhibits, including a major retrospective at the Noordelijk Scheepvaartmuseum in 1992. They were also shown at a special exhibition in Aurskog (1996), and another at the in Honningsvåg, near the place where she worked with the Sami (2004).

Selected paintings