Ragnhild (Lalla) Hvalstad (1875–1962) was a Norwegian painter and

ceramist Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take forms including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the visual arts. Whil ...

. In 1894, she was one of ten artists who participated in the

Vågåsommeren Vågåsommeren or the Vågå Summer was a Norwegian art colony, artists' collective which came together in Vågå, Innlandet County, in 1894. It consisted of ten painters, all of whom had spent the previous year studying art at Harriet Backer's sc ...

artists' colony in Vågå, Innlandet County. After painting portraits, interiors and landscapes, in 1922 she changed her focus to ceramics, studying in

Faenza Faenza (, , ; rgn, Fènza or ; la, Faventia) is an Italian city and comune of 59,063 inhabitants in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated southeast of Bologna. Faenza is home to a historical manufacture of majolica-ware glazed eart ...

, Italy. On returning to Norway, she opened her own workshop in

Bestum Bestum is a neighbourhood in Ullern in Oslo, Norway. Before the residential area arose, Bestum was mainly an agricultural area. The name origins from the Middle Ages. Bestum was served by a station named "Bestun" and the tram stop Bestum, but bot ...

where together with she created a wide variety of pottery, frequently decorated with flowers and fruits.

Biography

Born on 7 March 1875 in Kristiania (today's Oslo), Ragnhild Hvalstad was the daughter of the factory manager Johannes Andersen Hvalstad (1832–1922) and his wife Marie Agnete Bjørnstad (1844–1922). She studied painting in Stockholm at Harriet Backer's school (1894–1895) and was a student of

J.F. Willumsen Jens Ferdinand Willumsen (7 September 1863 – 4 April 1958) was a Danish painter, sculptor, graphic artist, architect and photographer. He became associated with the movements of Symbolism and Expressionism. Biography J. F. Willumsen was bor ...

in Copenhagen (1899–1900 and 1903). She befriended in particular her fellow art students

Alice Pihl Alice Dagny Pihl Salvesen (1869–1959) was a Norwegian painter. In 1894, she was one of ten artists who participated in the Vågåsommeren artists' colony in Vågå, Innlandet County. She was principally a portrait painter but also created mood ...

Johanna Bugge Berge Johanna Bugge Berge (1874–1961) was a Norwegian painter, illustrator and church decorator. In 1894, she was one of ten artists who participated in the Vågåsommeren artists' colony in Vågå, Innlandet County. After marrying Rikard Berge in 1 ...

and Kris Laache. In 1894, these four joined Kristen Holbø, a native of Vågå, and Halfdan Egedius, Lars Jorde, Thorvald Erichsen, Alfred Hauge and Oluf Wold-Torne, all students at Backer's school, to spend the summer months in Vågå's Sygard Storvik estate in what became known as "Vågåsommeren" (the Vågå Summer). In 1897, Hvalstc painted in Kviteseid together with Kris and Oluf Wold-Torne and Erichsen. For a time, she continued painting portraits, interiors and landscapes but after her parents died in 1922, she decided to make a change. On the advice of Henrik Sørensen, she decided to turn to ceramics. She travelled to Faenza where she learnt the traditional art dating back to the 17th century. On her return in 1923, she opened a workshop in Bestum in collaboration with Lili Scheel. The two worked together for almost 40 years until Hvalstad died in 1962. They produced a wide variety of tableware as well as tiles and smaller works, often decorated with flowers, fruits or figures inspired by European pottery from the 18th century but frequently incorporating designs from Norwegian rose painting. Lalla Hvalstad died on 20 October 1962 in Oslo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hvalstad, Lalla 1875 births 1962 deaths Artists from Oslo 19th-century Norwegian painters 20th-century Norwegian painters Norwegian women painters Norwegian ceramists Norwegian women ceramists 20th-century women painters