Søren Onsager (6 October 1878 – 28 November 1946) was a Norwegian painter. Onsager was born at

Holmestrand is a town and municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Holmestrand. The town was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). T ...

Vestfold Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered t ...

, Norway. His parents were Martin Onsager (1849–1926) and Laura Dorothea Christensen (1858–1934). His father operated pharmacies in which he first apprenticed. However an Italian trip during 1897–1898 was the turning point in his life. Upon his return to Norway, he trained with

Harriet Backer Harriet Backer (21 January 1845 – 25 March 1932) was a Norwegian painter who achieved recognition in her own time and was a pioneer among female artists both in the Nordic countries and in Europe generally. She is best known for her detailed ...

. After a year, she sent him to Kristian Zahrtmann 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 ...

, where he was for two years. During the period from 1902 to 1910, he went to Paris to study with Christian Krogh at Colarossi Academy. In 1908, he first exhibited at the Salon des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Onsager was appointed professor at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts during the

Nazi occupation of Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until th ...

from 1940 to 1945. After the war, Onsager was indicted for treason, but he died in prison after a long illness before his case came up.

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1878 births 1946 deaths People from Holmestrand 19th-century Norwegian painters 19th-century male artists 20th-century Norwegian painters Norwegian male painters Members of Nasjonal Samling Norwegian people who died in prison custody Prisoners who died in Norwegian detention 20th-century male artists {{Norway-painter-stub