Bengt Nordenberg

Bengt Nordenberg studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts. Training under Theodor Hildebrandt and Adolph Tidemand is recorded. Anna Wengberg and Augusta Jensen are recorded as having studied under Bengt Nordenberg. The recorded working language is Swedish. The field of work recorded is painting. The authority associates the name with Düsseldorf school of painting. Works named in the authority record are A Värend Wedding, A Revivalist Disturbs the Merrymaking and Nils Jeppsson in Hörby, member of parliament. Work by Bengt Nordenberg is recorded in the collections of Nationalmuseum, National Portrait Gallery of Sweden, Hallwyl Museum, Hermitage Museum and National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design.

• Name — Bengt Nordenberg • Birth Name — Bengt Nordenberg • Born — 22 April 1822 • Birthplace — Jämshög, Blekinge, Sweden • Died — 18 December 1902 • Place of death — Düsseldorf, Germany • Field — Painting • Training — Royal Swedish Academy of Arts and Kunstakademie Düsseldorf • Movement — Düsseldorf school of painting

Nordenberg was born at Jämshög in Blekinge County, Sweden. He was one of nine siblings born to Per Jönsson Nord (1785-1854) and his wife Sissa Bengtsdotter (b. 1792). He grew up in poverty and became an apprentice to a painter in Sölvesborg. In 1843 he fulfilled his wish to come to Stockholm and study at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. In the autumn of 1851, he went to the Düsseldorf Academy, where first Theodor Hildebrandt and then later, Adolph Tidemand became his teachers. In particular, the latter had a big influence on Nordenberg's painting style and subject matter. For some time he worked as an assistant to Tidemand, making reproductions of his paintings. Nordenberg also painted pictures of middle-class and upper-class life, and also religious paintings and altarpieces. He painted altarpieces in several Småland churches, including at Stenbrohult in Älmhult and Gårdsby in Växjö. In 1856, Nordenberg received a travel grant from the Swedish state. He studied with French history painter Thomas Couture (1815–1879) for one and a half years, made a short stop in Düsseldorf, and in the autumn of 1858 he went to Rome. He returned soon to Düsseldorf, where he settled for life. From 1856 to 1889 he was a member of Malkasten, an artists' association there. He also gave private lessons to Swedish artists including Peter Eskilsson (1820-1872), Augusta Jensen (1858-1936) and his nephew Henrik Nordenberg (1857-1928).

In 1855, Nordenberg married Nanny Maria Charlotta Sutthof (1831-1905).

• Illustration — Rowing to the Church, Dalarna (1854) • Illustration — The Veterans (1882) • Illustration — A Torn Goat • Illustration — Sheppard Family with Goats (1863) • Illustration — Winter Travel (1882) • Illustration — Leaving home (1876)

• Ann-Marie Elmqvist (1994) Bengt Nordenberg: folklivsmålaren (A.-M. Elmqvist)