Carl Frithjof Smith


Carl Frithjof Smith was a Norwegian portrait and genre painter who spent his career in Germany.

Biography

His father was a furrier. At the age of eighteen, he began working as a draftsman in the mechanical workshops of Trondheim. It was there that he took up painting in his spare time.
In 1880, he applied for a state travel grant, but was rejected. Nevertheless, he left Norway and enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, where he studied until 1884, when he had his debut at the Autumn Exhibition. His primary instructor there was the genre painter Ludwig von Löfftz, who influenced him to focus on genre scenes as well. In 1890, he was called to be a Professor at the Grand-Ducal Saxon Art School, Weimar, and remained there in that capacity until 1904. After his resignation, he continued to live in Weimar, as he had become a full member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund.
Perhaps his best known student was Max Beckmann. He won gold medals at exhibitions in Berlin in 1886 and 1891. He was also awarded a medal at the Glaspalast and won the silver Staatsmedaille in Vienna at the Jubiläumsausstellung. In addition, he held several showings at the. His works were familiar throughout Germany and Sweden, but not in Norway, as he seldom exhibited there, despite making several extended trips home. On one of these trips, he did a portrait of the internationally known playwright, Henrik Ibsen.

Gallery