Gerhard August Schneider (6 January 1842 – 14 January 1873) was a Norwegian artist and illustrator of folk tales.

Biography

(Gerhard) August Schneider was born in

Flekkefjord is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Flekkefjord. The villages of Sira, Gyland, Rasvåg, Kirkehavn, and Åna-Sira are ...

in the county of

Vest-Agder Vest-Agder (; "West Agder") was one of 18 counties (''fylker'') in Norway up until 1 January 2020, when it was merged with Aust-Agder to form Agder county. In 2016, there were 182,701 inhabitants, around 3.5% of the total population of Norway. I ...

, Norway. He was educated from Stavanger Cathedral School in 1860. The family's career choice for him was to study medicine at the University of Christiania (Oslo), but by making illustrations for weekly magazines, he spent more time on art than on the medical program at the University. After his father died he interrupted and ended his medicine studies, and through a competition in 1867, he won a free scholarship at

Johan Fredrik Eckersberg Johan Fredrik Eckersberg (16 June 1822 – 13 July 1870) was a Norwegian painter most noted for his landscapes. Eckersberg was a prominent figure in the transition from Romanticism to Realism in 19th-century Norwegian art, both as an artistic p ...

’s School of Art in Christiania. With a grant from Schäffer's endowment August Schneider continued his art studies at the Academy in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, as a pupil of

Frederik Vermehren Johan Frederik (Frits) Nikolai Vermehren, also known as Frederik Vermehren (12 May 1823 – 10 January 1910), a genre and portrait painter in the realist style. His artistic career took place during the period of Danish art known as the Golden ...

from 1868 to 1870, and from 1870 until his death at age 31 the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, Belgium. Schneider's illustrations and informative articles made him a sought-after contributor to magazines, especially ''

Illustreret Nyhedsblad ''Illustreret Nyhedsblad'' was a Norwegian weekly magazine, issued from 1851 to 1866 in Christiania, Norway. Its first editor was Paul Botten-Hansen, who edited the magazine from 1851 to 1864 and from 1865 to 1866, with Frederik Bætzmann bein ...

'', and occasionally for ''Skilling-Magazin'', ''Norsk Folkeblad'', '' Almuevennen'' and Danish publication, ''Illustreret Tidende''. From 1863until 1868 he was permanent illustrator in the witty magazine '' Vikingen''. His drawings were printed after xylography, and had often a political focus. Schneider was a habile

portrait painter Portrait Painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commission, for public and pr ...

too. Schneider made several trips to the valley of

Setesdal Setesdal (; older name: Sætersdal) is a valley and a traditional district in Agder County in southern Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Bykle, Valle, Bygland, Iveland, and Evje og Hornnes. The Otra river flows through the ...

and was touched by cultural traditions in the valley. He proved himself an accomplished painter of folk life and customs, leaving a rich sketchbook. His main contribution to art was his drawings for P. Chr. Asbjørnsen's ''Norske Huldre-Eventyr og Folkesagn'' (1879), and later editions. His illustrations for fairy tales and legends were developed in discussions with the tale collector and publisher Asbjørnsen himself, and built upon studies of peasants, house construction and his own collection of oral tales in

References

Bibliography

August Schneider - Sittende kvinne i Setesdals-bunad - Nasjonalmuseet - NG

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (15 January 18125 January 1885) was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe were collectors of Norwegian folklore. They were so closely united in their lives' work that their folk tale collection ...

: ''Norske Folke-Eventyr. Ny Samling. (Med Bidrag fra Jørgen Moes Reiser og Optegnelser.)'' Jacob Dybwad. Christiania 1871. *

and

Jørgen Moe Jørgen Engebretsen Moe (22 April 1813–27 March 1882) was a Norwegian folklorist, bishop, poet, and author. He is best known for the ''Norske Folkeeventyr'', a collection of Norwegian folk tales which he edited in collaboration with Peter ...

: ''Norske Folke- og Huldre-Eventyr i Udvalg''. Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn). Kjøbenhavn 1879. * Erik Henning Edvardsen: ''Kvitebjørn kong Valemon 1. Gerhard August Schneider – arkitekten bak norske evnetyrillustrasjoner''. Norsk Folkeminnelags skrifter nr. 155. Aschehoug. . Oslo 2005. *Erik Henning Edvardsen: ''Kvitebjørn kong Valemon 2. Gerhard August Schneider – den illustrerte eventyrutgaven som aldri utkom''. Norsk Folkeminnelags skrifter nr. 157. Aschehoug. . Oslo 2007. *Erik Henning Edvardsen: ''Kvitebjørn kong Valemon 3. Gerhard August Schneider – Setesdals folkloristiske oppdager''. Norsk Folkeminnelags skrifter nr. 163. Aschehoug. Oslo 2010. . * Alfred Sinding-Larsen: "Gerhard August Schneider. Med hans tegning til Eventyret 'Gutten og Fanden'". In: '' Ny illustreret Tidende'' No. 7. Christiania 15. Februar 1874, p. 51. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schneider, August 1842 births 1873 deaths 19th-century Norwegian painters Realist painters Collectors of fairy tales Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) alumni Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni 19th-century Norwegian writers 19th-century Norwegian male writers Norwegian male painters People from Flekkefjord 19th-century Norwegian male artists