The Musée d’Orsay not far from our hotels offers the first ever retrospective of painter Christian Krohg outside of Scandinavia, naturalist works that transformed Norwegian art at the the end of the 19th century.

You may not be familiar with Norwegian painter (and journalist, and intellectual) Christian Krohg. Often brandishing his social conscience, he mostly painted scenes of the vulnerable and poor, from fishermen in small coastal villages to prostitutes in the big cities.

Choosing a naturalist style to show his empathy for his subjects, Krohg – whom Munch studied under – became one of Scandinavia’s most important painters of the era (late 19th, early 20th century).

This retrospective of his life’s work will allow you to discover his style, choice of subjects and strict framing, as well as his endeavours to change society for the better. For example, you’ll learn how his 1886 novel Albertine was banned by the police directly after publication because it talked of prostitution. It’s almost certainly because of the novel, the furore around its banning and the two paintings that Krohg made on the same subject, that prostitution became forbidden shortly afterwards in Christiania (Oslo).

Related to the exhibition, you may be interested in:

— an inaugural conference on 8th April at midday (12€, book here),
— a reading entitled Painting the invisible on 10th April at 7pm, paying homage to the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 2023 (12€, book here),
— various visits and workshops for children (details here), and
— a theatrical visit on 24th April à 8.15pm, with the actors Gabriel Dufay, Thomas Landbo and Alessandra Domenici (26€, including entrance to the exhibition, book here).

An official catalogue (192 pages, 150 illustrations, 39€) is also available here from your local Amazon.

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The exhibition Christian Krohg – The People of the North is at the Musée d’Orsay (here) from 25th March – 27th July 2025

Open every day except Mondays from 9.30am-6pm (9.45pm Thursdays)

Admission: 16€ / 13€

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