Karen Holtsmark

Karen Kristine Holtsmark (11 November 1907 – 7 March 1998) was a Norwegian painter.

Biography

Holtsmark was born at Ås in Akershus, Norway. She was a daughter of Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark (1867–1954) and his wife Margrete Weisse (1871–1933). Her father was a physicist, and her mother was an educator. She was a maternal granddaughter of philologist Johan Peter Weisse, and a paternal granddaughter of agriculturalist and politician Bent Holtsmark. She was a niece of politicians Bernt and Torger Holtsmark, and a sister of professors Johan and Anne Holtsmark. She married Haakon R. Brækken in July 1936, but the marriage was dissolved.

Career Holtsmark attended the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry from 1924 to 1927 and the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts from 1927 to 1930. Her most important teacher was Axel Revold, and she was also influenced by Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen to take up the Surrealist style. Some of her paintings were Expressionist. She also became a Communist and stayed several times in France where she also studied under Georg Jacobsen in 1936.

Holtsmark retired in 1970 because of an eye condition. She died in March 1998 in Ås.