ANNE GRIMDALEN
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
by Lorna Mandt Robertson
Anne Marie Grimdalen was born 1899 on the Grimdalen farm in Skafsaa parish, in the mountains just south of the town of Dalen in Telemark, Norway. Anne Grimdalen was a great-great-granddaughter of Rasmus Mikkelsson Mandt. She was one of 10 children born to Olav Tarjeisson Grimdalen and Gunhild Torjusdtr Odden, and as part of a large family, she had to do her share of the farm work. She grew up in a mountain home set in rugged beauty and with wild life abundant. This rich background and familiarity with animals is evident in her art.
Annie had her first brief course of rural art from a local teacher when she was 18. In 1922, following a lengthy illness, her conviction and determination to study art began. She borrowed sixty kroner from a friend, and left for Oslo. She enrolled at the State College of Arts and Crafts, and studied there for three years. These were not easy years. To live in the city and study, she had to find employment. Annie worked from early morning to late in the evening as a domestic servant for her room and board and the funds to attend school.
Her art took the form of sculpture. From her hands grew the shapes and images of animals alive with personality. She progressed rapidly, and in 1926 she entered the
Academy for more intensive study for the next three years. The strain of working as a domestic and the increased study began to take a toll on her health. She had to give up the domestic work for a less strenuous job, with less pay, in order to devote her strength to her art. Within her first year of the Academy, a lynx she had modeled was accepted for the Spring Exhibition and later sold, and so helped to supplement her more meager existence.
Following the Academy, Anne set out to earn her living as a sculptress, but times were tough with few commissions. In the midst of discouragement, she received a commission for a group of bear cubs, and soon more work was coming in. Anne became known in Norway. In 1930 she received a Danish award of five hundred kroner to spend three months in Copenhagen. In 1931 her “Girl on a Horse” was purchased by the National Gallery in Oslo. In 1933, she was given another travel grant to Copenhagen, this time for six months. She studied and sculpted the animals in the Copenhagen Zoological Gardens. For the next six months she traveled in Italy to study their treasures.
After returning to Norway in 1934, she was given yet another grant, and returned to Italy and then to Greece, for study of their classical sculptures. In 1937 she was represented at the World Exhibition in Paris, her work then gaining world-wide recognition.
Prior to World War II, the Oslo City Hall (Radhus) was nearing completion, and artists throughout Norway were asked to submit ideas for the interior and exterior. Annie entered the competition. She had limited funds, work space, and physical health. She had to cast her drafts in plaster herself. Anne’s 16 foot statue of King Harald Hardraade on horseback was chosen for the first prize. Also selected was a 16 foot by 10 foot relief titled “The Lumberjacks,” and a circular fountain with animals playing. The Radhus was officially opened in 1950, and today Anne’s art can be seen in the afternoon sunlight of the exterior western wall.
Anne received other honors, including an audience with King Haakon VII; the Medal for Distinguished Civil Service, First Class; and with a lifetime grant of a State stipend. In 1954 she was invited to exhibit in Paris, and today one of her playful bears in Norwegian granite is in a Paris park. A personal favorite of mine is “ The Philospher,” a bear thoughtfully contemplating life and scratching his ear, which sits outside of the Dalen city hall. The entrance to the Vest Telemark Museum in Eidsborg is graced with a man working with a whetstone from the mines of that high mountain valley. Opposite the Skafsaa church are her stone portraits of Petter Mikkelsson Mandt, lensmann in Dalen, and Talleiv O. Huvestad, a member of the Norwegian Parliament, and a signer of the Statement of Independence.
The Anne Grimdalen Museum is open to the public on the Grimdalen farm, a loving and lasting memorial by her brother Olav Grimdalen, of Dalen. Anne died in 1961, unmarried. Anne’s animals are full of humor and playfulness. Her statues of people have dignity, humanity and grace. Her portraits are lifelike, acquainting us with people of the past. This country girl from Telemark left an impressive legacy to the world.
Lorna Mandt Robertson
Copyright 2000