Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Our Top Norwegian Museums
Step behind the scenes of Henrik Ibsen’s life Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen – writer of the most frequently performed plays in the world after Shakespeare – is a national hero and a true international superstar. More than a century after his death, immortal plays such as Peer Gynt, Brand, A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler still possess the power to engage, provoke and break down social boundaries. At the Ibsen Museum in Oslo, situated in Ibsen’s last apartment, you can move beyond the myth and get an intimate look at the final chapters of a mortal man. By Eirik Elvevold | Photos: Ibsenmuseet
Most of Henrik Ibsen’s plays, which are unceasingly performed around the globe, are set in Norway, but the playwright himself remained disenchanted with his home country. For 27 of his best years, Ibsen lived in self-imposed exile in Italy and Germany, before relocating to the Norwegian capital Kristiania (now Oslo) after a trip to the North Cape in 1891. “Ibsen eventually moved into a splendid apartment right next to the Royal Palace, where he lived for the last 11 years of his life and wrote his two last plays, John Gabriel Borkman and When We Dead Awaken. After a long process of uncovering the original interior and retrieving furniture, the apartment has been restored for everyone to see at the Ibsen Museum,” says consultant Bergljot Geist.
was a secluded and almost mystical person during his last years and was always very conscious of his own image. If he wasn’t out walking or drinking German beer at Grand Café, he would be in the study writing for his life,” says Geist.
Exhibitions at the Ibsen Museum:
While admirers used to flock to the street below Ibsen’s window to catch a glimpse of the ageing playwright, fans from around the world now enjoy exhibitions and guided tours in his private sphere on the building’s second floor.
The Writer’s Home: Ibsen’s last home has been restored with original interior, colours and décor.
“People usually gasp at the grandeur of the apartment. It’s full of lavishly decorated rooms, including the ‘blue salon’, ‘red salon’ and library, with the crown jewel being Ibsen’s study,” asserts Geist.
Mestermøte: Ibsen – Munch: Exhibition tracing Edvard Munch’s inspiration from Ibsen’s writing.
A portrait of Ibsen’s arch enemy August Strindberg, which used to motivate him by staring him in the neck, still hangs above the playwright’s old work desk. “The study has a magical atmosphere. There he sat each day, with a view of the Royal Palace, writing world literature. He
On the Contrary: Named after Ibsen’s last words, the permanent exhibition depicts the human being and the writer Henrik Ibsen.
Beatles in A Doll’s House: A humorous approach to Ibsen and the Beatles. Walking with Ibsen: A wandering theatre in the heart of Oslo.
For more information and opening hours, please visit: www.norskfolkemuseum.no/ibsenmuseet
Issue 98 | March 2017 | 69