Trondheim’s First Professional Female Visual Artist
Trondheim has been home to many prominent artists, but Astri Aasen was the city’s first professional female visual artist.
Astri Aasen 1875–1935: Trondheim’s First Professional Female Visual Artist
Trondheim has been home to many prominent artists, but Astri Aasen was the city’s first professional female visual artist.
Astri Aasen remained unmarried throughout her life and shares a grave with her parents at Lademoen Cemetery. As a portrait painter, however, she had many close encounters with people during her 60 years of life. One such occasion was when she painted portraits of participants at the major Sámi Assembly held in Trondheim on 6 February 1917, a date later celebrated as the Sámi National Day.
Astri Aasen drew and painted from an early age. After working as a photographer for several years, she began training as a painter at the age of 30, first under Asor Hansen in Bergen and then under Harriet Backer in Kristiania. In 1906, she continued her studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, before studying under Léon Bonnat in Paris in 1912. She subsequently lived and worked in her home city of Trondheim. She became particularly renowned for her portraits, but also painted interiors, landscapes and urban scenes. In addition to painting, she worked with drawing and printmaking.
Altogether, she produced a substantial body of work. Many of her works were sold at exhibitions in cities such as Oslo, Drammen, Tromsø and London, as well as in her home city. She held a total of eight exhibitions at the Trondhjem Art Association. The last of these, Pencil and Charcoal, took place shortly before her death in the autumn of 1935.
Astri Aasen is regarded as Trondheim’s first professional female visual artist. Following a memorial exhibition in 1943 and the death of her sister Kristine that same year, a charitable trust was established through a bequest. The Painter Astri Aasen’s Gift was intended to provide grants to young artists, preferably women. For many years, the trust was administered by the Trondhjem Art Association. Today, the Astri Aasen Scholarship is awarded by the Trondheim Art Museum.