Aasta Hansteen

Aasta Hansteen ( born December 10, 1824 in Oslo, then Kristiania, † April 13, 1908 ibid ) was a Norwegian painter, writer and early feminist.

Life

She was the daughter of a Danish mother and Christopher Hansteen, a professor of astronomy and geophysics at the University of Oslo. She began her artistic training in 1840 for two years in Copenhagen. From 1849 to 1852 she attended the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Already in 1855 her works during the Paris Exposition were shown. After returning to Oslo their successes continued. It was considered at that time as the only portrait painter in the city. Among the most important works from this period include a portrait of her father, which hangs in the National Museum Oslo today.

Overcome by the general interest, she finally retired for several years in the county of Telemark back. There she began to deal with Norwegian dialects. Upon her return to Kristiana / Oslo she began studying at the linguist Ivar Aasen. In 1862, it then published anonymously a small booklet in Nynorsk entitled Skrift above umsskrift i landsmaalet and thus became the first woman to publish a publication in this language.

In 1880 she emigrated to the United States, where she spent nine years. On her return to Norway she was particularly involved in the equality of women. As a strong and sometimes contradictory personality she was the model for Lona Hessel in Henrik Ibsen's Pillars of Society as well as for the main character in Gunnar Heiberg's aunt Ulrike. It was regarded as anti-men and was attributed to the city known originals of her hometown. Her grave on the Vår Frelsers Gravlund cemetery in Oslo adorns even today a bust of the famous sculptor Gustav Vigeland.