Tore Hamsun
Tore Hamsun (6 March 1912 – 10 January 1995) was a Norwegian painter, writer, and publisher born in Hamarøy Municipality. He was the son of the Nobel Prize winning novelist Knut Hamsun and actress Marie Hamsun. • Illustration — Marie and Knut Hamsun with children Tore, Arild, Ellinor, and Cecilia in 1933 At the age of five, his family moved from Hamarøy to Nørholm, a large agricultural property in Grimstad Municipality. Like the rest of his three siblings, he showed artistic ability at a young age but was the only one to take up a career in art.
Tore Hamsun

National Library of Norway · Public domain
- Name
- Tore Hamsun
- Born
- 6 March 1912
- Birthplace
- Hamarøy, Norway
- Died
- 10 January 1995
- Place of death
- Oslo, Norway
- Occupation
- Painter, writer, publisher
- Nationality
- Norway
- Education
- Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts
- Languages
- Norwegian
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Tore Hamsun (6 March 1912 – 10 January 1995) was a Norwegian painter, writer, and publisher born in Hamarøy Municipality. He was the son of the Nobel Prize winning novelist Knut Hamsun and actress Marie Hamsun. • Illustration — Marie and Knut Hamsun with children Tore, Arild, Ellinor, and Cecilia in 1933 At the age of five, his family moved from Hamarøy to Nørholm, a large agricultural property in Grimstad Municipality. Like the rest of his three siblings, he showed artistic ability at a young age but was the only one to take up a career in art.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Tore Hamsun. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q12006978 · wikipedia · Tore Hamsun
In this article
Biography
Biography
In 1933, he began Torstein Torsteinssons painting school and studied at an Art Academy in Munich from 1934 to 1935. Hamsun later completed studies at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo and debuted as a painter in 1940. He was remembered for his landscape paintings influenced by French Impressionism. Some of his paintings contained or were based on motifs derived from his father's books. From 1942 to 1944, Hamsun reluctantly accepted the position as temporary publishing director of Gyldendal Norsk Forlag publishing company after Harald Grieg, a close friend of Tore's father, was arrested in 1941. His father, Knut Hamsun was of the founders and owners of the publishing company. During the Second World War, Hamsun helped Max Tau flee to Norway. At the end of the war, Hamsun was sentenced to nine months jail for membership in the Nasjonal Samling. He was imprisoned for five months. In 1940, Hamsun published Mein Vater Knut Hamsun (My Father Knut Hamsun) and in 1956, he published a collection of his father's poems. Hamsun had inheritance rights to his father's farm Nørholm but gave it to his brother Arild Hamsun and settled nearby in Nørholmskilen. Hamsun married pianist Ruth Elisabeth Grung and had three children with her. In 1953, he married painter Marianne Doris Ferring and also had two children. Hamsun died after a traffic accident in Oslo in 1995 and was buried in the Eide cemetery.

Beskrivelse /
Anders Beer Wilse · Flickr: Portrett av Knut Hamsun med familie, Larvik, 1917

Bildet er hentet fra Nasjonalbibliotekets bildesamling. Anmerkninger til bildet var: Alternativ tittel fra fotografens egen nummerering
Anders Beer Wilse · National Library of Norway
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Tore Hamsun • Born — 6 March 1912 • Birthplace — Hamarøy, Norway • Died — 10 January 1995 • Place of death — Oslo, Norway • Occupation — Painter, writer, publisher • Parents — Knut Hamsun, Marie Hamsun
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Hamarøy Municipality.
Birth place
Oslo.
Death place
Publications
• 1940: Mein Vater Knut Hamsun. Leipzig. Paul List (publisher). • 1952: Knut Hamsun – min far, biography • 1956: Knut Hamsun som han var. Et utvalg av hans brev • 1959: Knut Hamsun • 1987: Knut Hamsun, min far, expanded edition • 1984: Mannen fra havet, novel • 1986: Mørk himmel over Puerto Bravo, novel • 1987: Rhapsody in Blue, novel • 1990: Efter år og dag, autobiography • 1956: Knut Hamsun som han var; et utvalg brev. Edited by Tore Hamsun. • 1970: Knut Hamsun: Brev til Marie. Edited by Tore Hamsun
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Tore Hamsun”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q12006978: Tore Hamsun
General reference · Wikidata
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Paintings
18,792 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Tor-Arne MoenArtist
- Tora Vega HolmströmArtist
- Torben GiehlerArtist
- Torben UlrichArtist
- Tōrei EnjiArtist
- Torii KiyomasuArtist
- Torii Kiyomasu IIArtist
- Torii KiyomitsuArtist
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Tore Hamsun?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.