Dagny Tande Lid (25 May 1903 – 28 January 1998) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

painter, illustrator and poet. She is most noted for her drawings of plants and is known for her own illustrated poetry collections and for her botanical illustrations of Norwegian postage stamps.

Background

Dagny Tande was born May 25, 1903, in

Nissedal Nissedal is a rural municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional regions of Upper Telemark and Vest-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Treungen. The ...

parish in

Telemark Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...

, Norway. Her parents were Johan Didrik Tande (1869–1938) and Thea Gertine Mortensen (1863–1951). She attended the

Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry The National College of Art and Design ( no, Statens håndverks- og kunstindustriskole) was established in 1818. In 1996 the National College of Art and Design became part of Oslo National Academy of the Arts The Oslo National Academy of the A ...

under Eivind Nielsen (1928–29), and evening school with

Olaf Willums Olaf Willums (25 April 1886 – 25 February 1967) was a Norwegian painter and printmaker. Biography He was born in Porsgrunn as a son of assurance director Olaf Karenius Abrahamsen (1853–1936) and Caroline Marie Halvorsen (1855–1925). In J ...

(1929–33), and at the Art Academy under

Halfdan Strøm Halfdan Strøm (4 November 1863 – 28 March 1949) was a Norwegian painter and an early representative of realism in Norwegian painting. He attended the Royal Drawing School in Christiania (nor Oslo). In 1883, he debuted at the Industria ...

and

Axel Revold Axel Revold (24 December 1887 – 11 April 1962) was a Norwegian painter, illustrator, and art professor at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts for twenty years. He was highly decorated for his merits. Personal life Revold was born in ...

(1929–30). From 1931-1933, she also took up the study of tapestry at the National Women's Industrial School (''Statens kvinnelige industriskole i Oslo'').

Career

Her work as an illustrator of scientific and popular works of

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

has won great acclaim. Lid is best known for her illustrations for the ''Norwegian Mountain Flora (Fjellflora)'', which has been issued in 325 000 copies since the first printing in 1952. The text was written by Norwegian botanist and politician,

Olav Gjærevoll Olav Gjærevoll (24 September 1916 – 30 August 1994) was a Norwegian botanist and politician for the Labour Party. Gjærevoll was a professor of botany at the University of Trondheim from 1958 to 1986, and was a specialist in alpine plants. ...

. The book has been translated into several languages, including English, German, Swedish and Finnish. She is also represented in several of the popular papers and books by Danish-Canadian botanist

Erling Porsild Alf Erling Porsild (1901–1977) was a Danish-Canadian botanist. Biography He was born in Copenhagen as a son of the botanist M.P. Porsild. He grew up on the Arctic Station in Qeqertarsuaq, West Greenland, where he acted as assistant to his fa ...

, including ''Edible plants of the Arctic'' (1953), ''Illustrated Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago'' (1957), and ''Rocky Mountain wild flowers'' (1974). She also illustrated ''Føroya Flora'' (1936) by Rasmus Rasmussen, ''Svalbards flora'' (1979) by Olaf I. Rønning, ''Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories'' (1968) by

Eric Hultén Oskar Eric Gunnar Hultén (18 March 1894 – 1 February 1981) was a Swedish botanist, plant geographer and 20th century explorer of The Arctic. He was born in Halla in Södermanland. He took his licentiate exam 1931 at Stockholm University and obt ...

and some

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

ic floras by

Áskell Löve Áskell Löve (20 October 1916 – 29 May 1994) was an Icelandic systematic botanist, particularly active in the Arctic. Education Áskell studied botany at Lund University, Sweden, from 1937. He received his PhD in 1942 in botany and a D.Sc. ...

. In 1936, she married Norwegian conservationist, botanist, ethnologist and author Johannes Lid (1886–1971). She worked for many years as illustrator for her husband, who for many years wrote

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

s for

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

.Per Sunding
''Johannes Lid '' (Norsk biografisk leksikon)
/ref> From 1959 until the early 1980s she made the illustrations for ten Norwegian stamps with flowers. They rank among Norway's most popular stamps issued. Her Mountain Flora illustrations were also printed on china cups and plates. Her style is marked by a great sense of detail, combined with clarity which some critics claim has made her illustrations like comic book illustrations. Some will see similarities between her work with flowers and the Belgian artist,

Hergé Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé (; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian cartoonist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of Tintin'', ...

, in the ligne claire style and the interest in accuracy and detail. However, her personal style has been a source of inspiration for many amateur botanists, and her work has contributed to the growth in interest in botany, particularly in Norway's mountain regions.

Written works

As an author of poems and prose pieces, Dagny Tande Lid told of her childhood in an itinerant minister's family, about people and events that have meant a lot to her, and about joy and happiness in work and marriage. She wrote several collections of poems, illustrated by herself, in her later years. In 1987 her autobiography, ''Mitt liv'' was issued and in 1974 ''Lykken mellom to mennesker'', a biographical tribute to her marriage to Johannes Lid. * ''Syng blomstring: Tegninger og dikt'' (1975) * ''Vindens lek'' (1977) * ''Høstens blader: Tegninger og dikt'' (1978) * ''Vart underlige liv: Illustrert med noen av jordens sjeldneste vekster'' (1979) * ''Brikker i et spill'' (1981) * ''Guds fotspor'' (1982) * ''Langs stien'' (1983) * ''Dagboksblader: Fra et pensjonisthjem'' (1984) * ''Forventning: Nye dagboksblader'' (1985)

References

External links

Dagny Tande Lid - botanical drawings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lid, Dagny Tande 1903 births 1998 deaths People from Nissedal 20th-century Norwegian painters Norwegian women poets Norwegian illustrators Scientific illustrators 20th-century Norwegian poets Women autobiographers 20th-century Norwegian women writers Norwegian women painters 20th-century Norwegian women artists Norwegian autobiographers

Background

Career

Written works

References

Related reading

External links